Defective
by TogetherWeCanFly
Summary: Beatrice Prior leaves her home, the Pitiful faction, for the Barbaric faction where she meets her trainer. An odd man with an angry face and only four friends. (Parody of Divergent!)
1. Chapter 1

**So obviously, I absolutely love "Divergent" but my sister and I had an idea and she really wanted me to write it, so here it is! We hope you like it!**

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TRIS POV

I sit on a stool in front of my mother, as she does my hair for the Choosing Ceremony. Unfortunately, I am not allowed to look at the hairstyle that she is creating for me. I was born into the Pitiful faction, which means that I have to let people step all over me because it would be far too selfish to stand up for myself. It also means that I'm not allowed to look at myself in the mirror because it would be a sign of vanity.

Unfortunately, that means I have to trust my mother with my hair, and she's always been fond of pranking me because she transferred from a faction called Barbaric where that kind of behavior is accepted.

My mother tears the brush through my hair, as I swallow my screams of pain. According to my faction, I don't deserve to express any feelings of discomfort.

"Okay, Beatrice." In case you're wondering, she did give me that name as a prank. "All done. Mirror time!"

She walks around me and slides open the wall in front of me. In this faction, we must also hide our mirrors. Most people think it's because of vanity. But it's really because we're afraid that ghosts might come out of them at night.

I look at myself in the mirror, even though I already think that I'm too hideous for anyone to ever fall in love with me. What with my fair skin and blonde hair. Hideous.

The wall slams shut in front of me, and my mother cackles in my face.

"Time's up, sucka!"

She runs from the room, firing a gun at the ceiling. It's a souvenir that she took with her before she left her old faction.

I stand up and sigh, wishing that I could have looked at my hideous face for a few more minutes, before walking into the kitchen to find my brother.

My brother, Caleb is wearing loose, grey clothes just like everyone else in our faction wears. The only difference is that Caleb also wears glasses so thick that they make his eyes look like they're half the size of his face, and he's constantly carrying around a stack of books. Constantly.

But he's like totally Pitiful material. There's no way he would ever transfer to the Nerds faction even though he acts exactly like them.

Caleb and I leave the house together to walk to the Choosing Ceremony. While I know that Caleb isn't going to transfer, I continue to wonder what I will do when it comes time to make a decision. I've always known that I have a hard time being pitiful, but I always hoped I would be able to pick it up.

Caleb and I freeze in out tracks, as a disheveled man jumps in front of us. A Hobo. He looks at us angrily.

"Give me your money, Stiffs!" he demands.

"Of course, good sir!" Caleb replies, as he reaches into his pockets.

"What? F*** that!" I yell, as I sprint past the Hobo.

I keep sprinting until I reach the next block, where I stop to catch my breath. After a few minutes, Caleb comes up beside me, only holding five books now.

"Beatrice, how could you!" he says sadly. "That was so un-pitiful of you!"

"Caleb, you know that I could never be as pitiful as you! You were _born_ to be pitiful."

"Wow." A sad smile appears on his face. "Thanks, Beatrice."

And with that, we continue on our way to the ceremony. I know that I should have given that Hobo my money. That's what any Pitiful would do. But I guess I've never really had what it takes to be a Pitiful.

When we get to the ceremony, my eyes immediately go up to the ceiling. Once I find the bullet holes in the roof, I walk toward them and find my mother already in her seat, her gun still aimed at the ceiling, as my father looks around nervously.

"Oh good, you found us!" My mother snickers, as she puts her gun back into her pocket. "Marcus was starting to get mad."

Marcus Eaton is the leader of our faction. Truly the most pitiful man I have ever met.

Caleb and I sit down next to our parents, as the ceremony begins. I look to the front of the room. There are five large, rectangular patches in the front of the room. Each patch consists of something different to represent each faction. When we go up to choose, we must walk over the patch that represents our desired faction.

For our faction, the Pitiful, we must walk over a patch of grey stones quietly while Marcus picks up some of the stones and throws it at us. If we do this without complaining, we are allowed to be Pitiful.

The Nerds faction members must walk through a pit of water, and the Assholes must walk over a thin slab of glass. If the glass breaks, they must leave and become a Hobo.

The Hippies must walk through soil. In case you're wondering, that's where the phrase "dirty hippie" comes from.

And then, there's the Barbaric. To become a Barbaric, they must walk over a patch of hot coals. Barefoot. They sure are a crazy bunch.

I look over each one, considering my options. I'm not nearly pitiful enough to stay here, but where would I go? I could never join the Nerds because, well... they're nerds. I couldn't join the Assholes because I'm horrible at lying, and they can always tell when somebody lies. I certainly wouldn't enjoy skipping around and singing all day, so that rules out the Hippies.

That leaves just one faction. The Barbaric. My mother leans over to me, as if she knows I was thinking about her old faction.

"What are you gonna do, Beatrice?" she whispers.

"What?"

"Are you gonna _stay?_ " She draws the word out, as she stares at me. "Or _transfer_?"

"I don't think I'm supposed to tell you, Mom," I say nervously.

"Well, just know that no matter what you choose," she says, smiling at me lovingly. "I'll always fire my gun on your birthday."

"I know, Mom."

I smile back at her, but I feel guilty. She must know that I'm leaving her. But I'm still not sure where I'm going instead because this is a life-long decision so of course I'm going to put it off until the very last second and just do whatever feels right at the moment.

Marcus begins to speak, silencing the whole room. The ceremony begins, as Marcus calls the first name. Each sixteen year old goes to the front when their name is called, removes their shoes and walks over their patch. The first transfer is a boy from the Asshole faction. I watch as he removes his shoes and walks through the Hippies patch, the soil staining his white pants.

I guess he's tired of being an Asshole.

Caleb's name is called, and I watch him slowly stand up, his eyes wide. Or at least, they look wide because of his glasses. When he gets to the front, he removes his shoes and stands still for a moment before taking a step towards...

The pit of water!

I watch in horror, as he wades through the water, even splashing around a bit for dramatic effect. As he walks over to the Nerds faction, he leaves a trail of water behind him. I turn to my mother, afraid that she will be upset about his choice. She looks at me and shrugs.

"Eh, I always knew he was gonna leave," she says. "Have you seen those glasses? What a nerd!"

"Beatrice Prior!"

I gasp at the sound of my name. I stand up slowly, as I make my way to the front.

This is it. It's time to make a decision that will affect the rest of my life. Good thing I still have a good five seconds to decide.

When I get to the front, I look at the five options in front of me. Only one of them feels right.

I remove my shoes, take a deep breath, and step toward the patch of hot coals. I can hear gasps and whispers behind me, but I don't care. I take the first step onto the burning coals and do something that I was never allowed to do in my old faction.

I scream in pain.

I am truly Barbaric now.


	2. Chapter 2

_I remove my shoes, take a deep breath, and step toward the patch of hot coals. I can hear gasps and whispers behind me, but I don't care. I take the first step onto the burning coals and do something that I was never allowed to do in my old faction._

 _I scream in pain._

 _I am truly Barbaric now._

Once I make my choice, I walk toward the Barbaric section, where a huge crowd of people dressed in black with piercings and crazy-colored hair cheer for me. I sit down, as my feet are still burning from walking over the coals. One of the Barbaric sits next to me.

"Hey, enjoy this while it lasts!" he yells over the cheering. "Even though we're cheering for you now, once initiation starts, they're gonna call you a Stiff and make fun of you constantly because we hate the Pitiful faction!"

He disappears into the crowd, as they cheer for a few more seconds. Finally, Marcus pulls out a bear horn and sounds it. The Barbaric slowly quiet down, as he continues to call up the rest of the sixteen year olds.

Once everyone has been called, Marcus begins to make a speech to congratulate all of the initiates. But he is cut off when each of the Barbarics leaps from their seats and starts sprinting for the door while he is mid-sentence.

I jump from my own seat and shove my feet into my shoes as I run after them. I look back at my parents briefly for what could be the last time. My father is watching me sadly, and my mother is firing her gun at the ceiling with a huge grin on her face. She must be excited that I chose her old faction.

We sprint through the doors and through the hallway. But suddenly, we stop. Everyone looks around at each other and chatters awkwardly, as we stand there. I look around to figure out why we have stopped.

 _Ding!_

They begin to cheer again, as they file onto the elevator. Unfortunately, there's not enough room for everyone, so the rest of us wait as the first group goes down.

I should have known. Only the Pitiful take the stairs in this building.

Once the last group finally gets off the elevator, the entire group begins cheering and running again. I struggle to keep up. I was never allowed to run much in the Pitiful faction. After all, running is a way to stay healthy. And who are we to take good care of ourselves?

We climb up to the train tracks, and the group stops, as they wait for the train to arrive.

"Guys, we missed it!" one of them yells out.

"Dammit, I told you we should have just taken the stairs!" another yells.

"But I'm pregnant, I can't be running down stairs!"

"You're about to jump on a train!"

"Damn..." She stops to consider this. "You right. Sorry guys, we could have taken the stairs."

"Well, when's the next one?" the guy next to me asks.

"I don't know, this has never happened before!"

We stand there, waiting and awkwardly shuffling around and making small talk, as we wait. After about half an hour, the train begins to approach and my adrenaline immediately returns. I run after the others and watch, as they hoist themselves into the train. I grab onto one of the handles and try to copy their movements. Instead I fall flat on my face, and one of them kicks the bottom half of my body into the car.

I look up to thank them, but all of them have already wandered to the other end of the car.

"You really know how to make an entrance, don't you?"

I turn my head and see a girl with light brown skin and short brown hair looking down at me. She is wearing black and white clothes, which could only mean one thing.

"You're an Asshole." She raises an eyebrow at me. "I mean, er... You must be an Asshole?"

"And you must be a Stiff." She smirks, as I stand up. "I'm Christina."

"Beatrice," I offer.

"Wow, that's... That's awful."

"Yeah, my mom named me that as a prank."

I shrug my shoulders, as we lean against the wall of the car to catch our breath. A minute later, I notice that the Barbarics are once again jumping from the train. I hear someone yell for us to follow. I turn to Christina and she nods at me.

"F*** that!" I turn around and see a boy dressed in blue sitting at the opposite side of the car. A Nerd. "I'm not jumping. I'd rather be a Hobo."

"I hear you, bro." One of the Hippies sits down next to him. "Not feeling it."

Everyone who is still in the car looks at each other and shrugs collectively. Christina and I turn back around, as the Hippie suggests that they start their own faction, and jump from the train at the same time. Once we have recovered from the fall, we stand up and wander to where the rest of the initiates are.

A creepy looking man with piercings all over his face stands in front of us on the ledge and clears his throat.

"Okay," he starts, as the group continues to chatter. "Initiates, shut the hell up!"

Everyone turns to look at the man quietly.

"My name is Eric," he says. "And I will be one of your initiation instructors."

"Why do you have so much metal in your face?" one of the Hippie transfers asks. "Doesn't it hurt?"

Eric silently walks over to the Hippie, picks him up, and throw him over the side of the building.

"There. No more wise cracks." We all nod at him, as he continues. "To enter Barbaric, you must jump off of this building."

"We just jumped, and they want us to jump again?" Christina whispers to me.

"Well, yeah," I whisper back. "That's what he just said."

I swear, Assholes have such problems with listening.

"Someone has to go first," Eric says, eyeing each of us. "Who's it gonna be?"

"Me!" I call out, as I walk over to him.

He shrugs and steps to the side so that I can stand on the ledge where he was just seconds before. I look down and see only a gaping hole. I look at Eric, who is already staring back at me.

"Is it safe?" I ask.

"You'll have to find out, won't you?" he replies.

"I mean, there's no way you would kill me," I say surely. "So it has to be safe. Even though this is probably the least trustworthy faction, I'm just gonna trust that you guys wouldn't kill me."

Eric does not reply.

I look down and take a deep breath before I feel a hand pushing me forward. I fall over the side of the building, my arms flailing as I go. After a few seconds, I feel the wind get knocked out of my lungs as I fall into a net. Once I've finished bouncing, somebody grabs the edge of the net and pulls it down to help me out. I look up at him, as he pulls me out and helps me stand. His blue eyes, his short hair, his angry face.

"You're Tobias Eaton," I say matter-of-factly.

His eyes widen.

"What?"

"You're Tobias Eaton," I repeat, shrugging my shoulders. "We were in the same faction. Both of our fathers were leaders. There's no way that I wouldn't recognize you. That's just unrealistic. So of course I recognize you. Good to see you again, Tobias Eaton."

"Okay, but the people here don't know that that's my name," he whispers. "So... Please, stop."

"Oh, sorry! Your secret is safe with me... _Toby_."

I wink, and he just sighs at me.

"Please, for the love of god, just call me Four," he says.

"Four? That's a weird-"

"I know, I know." He shakes his head. "What is your name?"

"Well, I'm kinda tired of being named after a prank." He gives me a funny look. "So I'll just shorten it. My name is Tris!"

"Okay..." He turns to face the others. "First jumper, Tris!"


	3. Chapter 3

_"First jumper, Tris!"_

The Barbaric cheer for me, momentarily forgetting that I am a Stiff and that they hate my guts. Four turns back to me and nods.

"Good thinking, Tris," he says, as he ushers me to the side of the room. "Members of Barbaric may only have four-letter names."

"Is that why your name is Four now?" I ask him. "Did you think that they literally meant you had to be named after the number four?"

"No." He looks down, his eyes darker now. "It goes back much further than that."

"Oh... Okay."

We hear a high-pitched scream, meaning that another girl is jumping into the net. I look and see a very muscular guy dressed in white falling into the net, still squealing. Another Asshole. Four rolls his eyes and pulls the net down so that he can get out. The Barbaric members behind me are laughing hysterically, as he looks around at us and clears his throat awkwardly.

"Name?" Four asks.

"Peter," he replies.

"No."

"Yes..." Peter gives him a funny look. "That's my name."

"Only four letters," Four growls. "Welcome to Barbaric, Pete."

"What? But my name is-"

Four shoves Peter- or _Pete_ \- backwards into the group of Barbaric members, as the next initiate jumps. Christina comes out of the net and smiles at me. I cringe when she tells Four that her name is Christina, and he glares at her intensely. She looks confused until he explains to her that her name can only be four letters, and he gives her the options of "Cris" or "Tina."

"Uhm... I'll take Cris, I guess," she says, still looking at him funny.

"Good." He nods. "Third jumper, Cris!"

"Wait," one of the Barbaric members yell. "Tris jumped again?"

"No! Cris! _Cris!_ " Four groans. "Forget it, this is too confusing. Your name is Tina now."

"But I-"

"It's Tina now! Third jumper, Tina!"

Christina- or _Tina_ \- rolls her eyes as she joins me on the other side of the room. After her, Will jumps. Luckily, he gets to keep his name. Then, a boy named Uriah jumps and Four changes his name to Uria. Then, he changes Molly's name to Moly. He also changes Al's name to Alan. Once each initiate has jumped and received a four-letter name, Eric falls into the net silently and joins us.

"Hello, Eric," Four says, as Eric approaches the group of initiates. "How are you, my friend?"

"Shut up, Four," Eric groans "We're not friends."

"Always the joker, this one."

Eric rolls his eyes, as he turns to face the group. We all quiet down, as he stares at us.

"Initiates who are Barbaric-born will go with Laur," he says, pointing at a woman behind the group. "Transfers will stay with Four and I."

We stand, staring back at Four and Eric, as the Barbaric-born file out of the room after Laur. Once everybody is gone, Eric starts walking out of the room, and we follow him wordlessly. Four stays behind the group. I am curious as to why, but I'm too scared to ask after I saw Eric throw that Hippie off a building. Eric breaks the silence by explaining to us that we are going on a tour of the Barbaric compound so that we can get used to it. As we walk, it is so dark that I can barely see. But Eric explains that all of us will have night vision once we live here long enough, so at least I don't have to worry about that.

I notice that Four stops short, as we approach a small staircase. Eric seems to notice, as he stops walking and groans loudly.

"You're really not coming, Four?"

"I can't," Four says sadly.

"There's only six stairs!" Eric yells. "It's like five feet high!"

"I can't, Eric." Four looks away dramatically. "You know that."

"Okay, f*** it." Eric rolls his eyes. "I'll take them the rest of the way."

"Thank you, Eric. You're a real friend."

Eric groans again, as we walk up the stairs to the next section of the compound. When I look back, Four is still standing at the bottom of the stairs, watching us sadly. I wonder why he can't walk up stairs.

"This is the Chasm," Eric says, as we stop by a huge body of rushing water. "If you fall in, you will die. If you annoy me, I will push you in. And you will die. Any questions?"

"I have a question," Christina says. "I know Four said my name has to be Tina now, but I really just don't feel like a Tina. Can I at least be like Stina or something?"

"You're annoying me, Tina," Eric says, as he pushes Christina over the railing around the Chasm.

I grab her hand before she tumbles over, and she grabs onto me tightly, screaming bloody murder. As I help her back over the railing, I hear Four yell something from the bottom of the staircase.

"Everything's fine, Four," Eric yells. "One of the initiates wanted a five-letter name so I tried to push her into the Chasm."

"Oh, okay!" Four yells back. "Good job, Eric, my friend!"

"I'm not your... Forget it."

Eric rolls his eyes and starts walking again, all of us following closely behind him. Christina is still shaking and her eyes are still wide. I'm not sure what she was expecting, though. We are in Barbaric now. She can't keep acting like an Asshole.

"And this," Eric says loudly as we turn the corner. "Is where you will all be staying."

I notice Four standing beside the door that Eric goes to open, and I wonder how he caught up with us, but I decide not to ask. The two of them lead the group through the doorway and into a huge room with ten beds lined up against the wall.

There are at least 20 initiates. Since there are only ten beds in here, I reason that this room is only for one gender.

"All initiates will be sleeping here," Eric says, getting rid of my theory. "Male and female."

"But sir, there are only 10 beds," Will says, as he pulls out a calculator from his pocket. "And there are 20 of us, which means that only... half of us could sleep in here."

What a Nerd.

"No, all of you. This is the fun part," Eric grins evilly, as he grabs the calculator out of Will's hand and smashes it against the wall. "Every night, you will need to fight for a bed. And as initiation goes by, we will remove one bed from this room every 24 hours. Only the strongest will be able to obtain a bed. We will know who the strongest of you are when we see who is the most well-rested in the morning."

We all look around at each other in disbelief, but nobody says anything. That is, until Pete walks away from the group. We watch him, as he dramatically glides over to the first bed and slowly lays down on it. He then looks at the group.

"This one is mine," he announces.

"I like him," Eric says. "Anyway, dinner is in a few minutes. I would recommend you follow me, since Four has to go the long way to avoid the stairs."

We follow him out of the room, as Pete stays in the bed, watching us all leave with wide eyes. When we reach the cafeteria, I cringe at the amount of noise. People are yelling and laughing loudly and throwing their glasses at the walls. I guess this is what it's really like to be a Barbaric. Christina and I walk together, trying to find an empty table. As we walk, I notice that Four is already sitting at one of the tables. I wonder, again, how he beat us here when Eric said he took the long way. I point at the table where Four is sitting, and Christina shrugs. We sit down next to him and Will and Alan sit across from us, but Four does not acknowledge us.

As we sit down, Four looks over his shoulder and starts waving his hands frantically.

"Eric!" he yells. "Over here, friend!"

Eric grimaces and walks in the other direction. Four looks confused, as he returns his attention to his food.

"You know, you keep calling him your friend," Alan says suddenly. "But he's not very nice to you."

"Careful," Four mutters. "You sound like an Asshole."

Alan looks down nervously, and the rest of us look at each other before I decide to step in.

"Maybe you should make better friends," I suggest. "I mean, we could be your friends."

"I don't know about that," Christina mumbles.

"I already have four friends," he says, looking at me harshly.

"Okay..." I lean in a bit, waiting for him to say more. "So..."

"I already have four."

He looks at me as if he is offended that I do not understand what he is talking about. Before I can say anything, he stands up and storms out of the cafeteria.


	4. Chapter 4

**Here it is! The first day of training! I would just like to quickly say a 'thank you' to GerdyGertha! We appreciate your support, and we absolutely love reading your reviews! Thanks for being awesome!**

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After dinner ends, all of us get up from our tables and start for the exit. Tina (Christina) and I exchange a look, as Pete sprints ahead of all of us, screaming that nobody can take his bed from him. We shrug at each other, as we continue walking. Once we reach the dorm, Pete is already laying on his bed, watching all of us with wide eyes again.

We all look around at each other, as realization hits us that we have to fight for a bed tonight. Just as the thought crosses my mind, one of the Barbaric-born initiates screams at the top of his lungs.

"BED FIGHT!"

Tina and I inch toward the corner of the room, as the rest of the initiates start tackling and throwing punches at each other. Some of them pick up pillows and start swinging them at each other. I turn to Tina and she looks at me with wide eyes. She slowly raises her hands and nudges my arm with her fist.

"You'll never get my bed," she says, winking at me.

"Oh... Yeah!" I wink back, pretending to punch her. "My bed!"

Moly scurries over to us and growls, and we both look at her.

"We're already fighting!" Tina says.

"Oh, my bad!" Moly says apologetically before running away to find someone else to fight.

When the fighting is finally over, Tina and I end up in one of the beds together with Al sleeping at the foot of it like our own personal puppy. Pete managed to keep his bed because everyone was so focused on fighting that they didn't even think to push him out of his bed. Moly ends up with a bed as well as a black eye. One of the Barbaric-born initiates, who I remember as Uria also has one. Will sleeps on the ground next to our bed, his broken calculator still resting in his arms.

In the middle of the night, I wake up to Tina spooning me from behind in her sleep. I also hear Al whimpering at the end of our bed. I groan sleepily and kick him in the side, which makes him stop crying before I fall back to sleep.

The next morning, we walk into the training room. Four and Eric stand beside a small chalkboard while another man with darker skin stands in the back, watching us. Uria notices me looking at him, confused, and he explains to me that the man's name is Maxx (with two x's because it has to be four letters) and that he is a leader of Barbaric. But for some reason, he just kinda hangs out in the background, barely ever saying anything.

"Gather around, initiates," Eric yells, even though we are already standing in front of him. "This board contains your rankings. We will be watching your progress and adjusting your rankings throughout the training process. By the end of the first stage, only the top ten will be going through."

"Going through?" Tina asks, automatically shrinking back when Eric looks at her.

"Yes," Eric continues, sighing dreamily. "Anyone who does not go through will become a Hobo."

All of us look around at each other, clearly shocked.

"Shut up and quit complaining," Eric says even though nobody said anything. "A real Barbaric won't care that there's a chance that they... Well, that they won't be Barbaric anymore."

"But if a real Barbaric wouldn't care, doesn't that mean that they _should_ be with the Barbaric?" Will asks.

"I'm getting tired of your sass, Nerd," Eric replies, making Will look down sadly. "Since we don't have much to judge you by yet, I kinda just ranked you based on how much I like you guys."

He turns the board around and I look for my name. I am in the eleventh spot, which isn't too bad. Of course, Pete is in the first spot. I notice that Tina's name is scribbled in the bottom with a "-100" next to it. Probably because she wouldn't accept her four letter name.

"Cool!" Pete shouts after a second. "I'm first."

"Yes, you are," Eric says with a smirk on his face. "I really appreciated that way you claimed that bed."

Eric quirks his eyebrow suggestively at Pete, who looks down and stands there uncomfortably. I look around at the two of them, not understanding why Pete is uncomfortable.

"Anyway," Four says, breaking the silence. "Today, you're going to learn to shoot guns."

"Oh, yeah. Right."

Eric clears his throat, finally looking away from Pete. Each of us take a gun and line up, as they explain the basics of shooting. When they let us start, I cringe at the noise, but at least it's not as bad as the sound of the Barbaric members yelling and breaking glasses during dinner. Four and Eric walk around behind us, watching as we shoot. As Four comes up behind me, I decide that this is my chance to impress him and get a higher ranking.

I plant my feet on the ground and hold my arms out in front of me. I can tell that he is watching me as I stare at the target in front of me. Finally, I pull the trigger and the recoil sends the gun flying back into my face. I stumble backwards and fall on my back, my hand covering my now sore nose. I groan and look up to see Four staring down at me.

"I forgot to tell you," he says calmly. "Recoil's a bitch."

He then steps over me, as I lay on the ground.

"Statistically speaking," Will says, as I get up, "one of us was bound to do that."

When we finally finish shooting, we follow Eric to lunch since Four has to take the long way to avoid stairs, as usual. The entire way, Eric talks to Pete who looks very uncomfortable. When we get to the cafeteria, Eric tells Pete to sit with him and Pete does so, knowing he doesn't have much of a choice.

"That's so unfair," I whisper to Tina. "Eric is befriending Pete. Now he's gonna have a better chance!"

"Tris, I wouldn't call that befriending..."

"What do you mean?"

"Uhm..." She looks at me and shakes her head. "Nevermind."

We walk in and sit at the same table where we sat last night with Four. Again, he doesn't acknowledge our presence. And again, I wonder how he got here so fast when he has to take the long way. As we sit eating, we notice two of the other initiates, Eddy and Myra, sitting at the table next to ours.

"Weren't they Nerds, too?" Tina asks Will. "How come you never talk to them?"

"Yeah," he says. "But they're a couple. I didn't want to be a third wheel."

As soon as Will says this, Eddy and Myra start frantically making out out of nowhere. Tina just looks down and keeps eating as if nothing is happening, but I feel incredibly uncomfortable. Back in the Pitiful faction, even just looking at a boy suggested that you were interested in him. We were never allowed to display affection in public, especially like this. I sigh and wipe my hands on the napkin in front of me. I notice Four look at me, as I stand up with a fork in my hand.

"Tris," Tina says. "What are you doing?"

"Well, since I don't have a ruler, I'm going to hit them with this fork to punish them for their indecency."

"What the f***?"

"What? Isn't that what you guys do here?"

"No!" Tina yells as she pushes me back into my seat. "That's only a Pitiful thing, Tris! People are allowed to kiss here! And you can't hit them with rulers... or forks for showing affection!"

"Oh..." I say, letting all of this new information sink in.

Things are simply so backwards here. Becoming a Barbaric is going to be harder than I thought.


	5. Chapter 5

**Hi guys! Sorry this chapter is so short, but we haven't had very much time to write. But anyway, it's about quality not quantity, right? ;) Hope you guys like it because we certainly liked writing it!**

* * *

As the next part of initiation, Four tells us that we will be learning how to fight. I stand, waiting eagerly, as the rest of the initiates filter into the room. As we stand there, Four stares at us, looking angry as always. I notice some of the initiates shifting uncomfortably as he glares at us until Eric walks into the room.

"Everybody shut the hell up!" Eric yells, even though nobody was speaking. "Today, we are going to practice fighting so that you can be a true Barbaric."

Four walks to the other side of the room and starts picking something up, but I don't look to see what it is because I don't want Eric to think I'm not paying attention to what he is saying.

"If you're going to be part of Barbaric, you must learn to fight with any weapon. You must be prepared for anything."

I can't help but look at Four, as he walks back over to us with a large black bag over his shoulder.

"The weapons that you will be using today are in this bag," Four says. "They must be handled with the utmost care."

The rest of the initiates seem as tense as I feel, as we watch Four put the bag down on the floor. We stand there, watching as he slowly reaches into the bag. The suspense is killing me. Finally, he seems to grab onto something, and he looks up at us.

"Catch!" he yells as he pulls something out of the bag.

He quickly throws it at Pete, and all I see is a flash of white, as Pete starts squealing in fear and attempting to dodge whatever the object is. His squealing stops short, as he bends down to pick up the object. He looks at Four, confused.

"A pillow?"

Four glares at him for a moment before picking up another pillow out of the bag and walking over to him menacingly. He stands face-to-face with a scared-looking Pete for about a minute before smacking him in the head with his pillow and returning to the center of the room.

"These are real weapons, and they must be treated as such," Four says. "Wake up, Pete."

Pete looks around, confused, as Four continues to tell us that we will need to learn to fight with pillows so that we will have more of a chance of obtaining a bed. He then tells us that we will be working in pairs to practice the proper pillow-fighting techniques. Tina and I pair up to practice, as we practice hitting each other with the pillows. Not too hard, of course, because we wouldn't want to hurt each other just during the practice.

As we practice, Four and Eric walk back and forth to watch us. Well, Four is watching us. Eric is just kinda staring at Pete, as he practices with Drew. I notice Four watching us, as he comes up behind us. He stands there quietly for about a minute before walking in between us so that we have to stop.

"You're weak," he says to me.

"Oh... Okay thanks," I say since I'm not sure what else to say to that.

"You need to put more power behind your hits," he says as he comes up behind me. "Never forget to keep tension here."

And suddenly, his hand is on my chest. My breast, more specifically. I blush, as I look down at his hand and clear my throat awkwardly. I notice Tina looking at us, and she seems just as confused as I am.

"Uhm..." I clear my throat again to get his attention. "That's my boob."

"Yes," he says confidently. "Keep tension here."

"Okay..."

And with that, he removes his hand and walks away.

"That was weird," Tina comments.

I nod my head in agreement, as Eric and Four walk back to the center of the room to announce that training is over for today.


	6. Chapter 6

**We have been reunited! Which is awesome because that means more chapters yay! Thank you guys for reading and we hope you guys like this chapter!**

* * *

As we leave the training room to go to dinner, Tina nudges my shoulder, and I look down at her.

"I'm surprised he didn't break you in half," Tina says, referencing how Four told me to keep tension in my boobs. "I heard he broke a full grown guy in half once."

"Good for him."

As we walk, Alan and Will come up behind us because we are all friends, even though I hardly ever talk to them.

"We should totally go get some tattoos!" Alan says. "I feel like it'll help me forget about being an Asshole!"

"That's true," Tina pipes in. "It's so hard to not be an Asshole anymore. A tattoo will totally help!"

"Yeah, plus then I can stop crying about not being an Asshole anymore," Alan says.

There is a moment of awkward silence, as Tina and I look each other, not knowing what to say. Alan smiles sadly at us.

"I know you guys have heard me," he says.

"Well, yeah," I reply. "I kicked you to make you stop, remember?"

"Thanks for that," Tina says to me. "That crying was super annoying, just like Alan. Anyway, we should definitely get tattoos! Then, we can totally look Barbaric!"

"I mean, I guess." I shrug. "But I'm not dying my hair or cutting it because my long hair is the only feature of mine that I don't find completely hideous."

"How about a piercing?" Will says out of nowhere.

"Ooh yeah!" Tina says, clapping her hands excitedly. "Like your ears, or your belly button-"

"Or your nipples!" All of us go quiet, as we look at Will. He looks down and clears his throat awkwardly. "Sorry, too much?"

"Well, whatever," Tina says. "First, we're getting Tris some new clothes! We'll meet you guys at the tattoo place!"

"What's wrong with my clothes?"

As I raise my arms in a questioning manner, my overly long sleeve smacks Tina in the face, and she lets out a yelp. She glares at me for a moment, as she rubs her cheeks.

"They're too baggy. You're hurting people, Tris!"

"Ugh, fine!"

And so, we walk up to one of the Barbaric clothing stores because we somehow have money to buy new clothes even though we just got here. What, you don't remember that time when I got held up by a Hobo and refused to give him my money? Well, it happened. And now, I'm using that money for a good cause.

First, Tina tries to convince me to wear a black lingerie set because it would prove that I'm Barbaric enough to not care about people seeing me in my underwear. But since I refuse that, she ends up bringing me a black knee-length dress with long sleeves. It's still pretty flashy, but I put it on anyway, since I'm too tired to keep shopping.

After I put the dress on, I look at my hideous self in the mirror. And even though I'm still hideous, I look way different from my gross pitiful self. As I stand there, staring at my ugly face, Tina suddenly reaches up and tears my hair tie out of my hair, and I let out a scream of pain. I smile for a moment because screaming in pain was something I was never allowed to do in my old faction. But then I remember that Tina just assaulted me, so I look around at her.

"I'm just letting your hair down so that you can look all sexy and whatnot!"

"I'm not sexy, Tina," I say sadly. "You can't even make me look pretty."

"Well, you're totally right," she says. "That's why I'm going for noticeable, not pretty!"

"Oh, nice loophole!"

Once we have paid for the dress, we decide to go and meet up with our friends at the tattoo parlor. As we walk, I can't help but think how weird it is to have male friends. Back in Pitiful, just looking at a person of the opposite sex meant you wanted to marry them.

When we get to the tattoo place, Alan is already getting a tattoo done, and Tina walks away to talk to Will. I stay back because I can tell that she likes him and wants to be alone with him. Mostly because she said "I like him, so go away" as we were approaching the tattoo parlor.

"Sup bro," someone says.

I look around and see a tatted up woman walking toward me. She looks at me expectantly, and I remind myself that I have to respond like a Barbaric.

"Uhm... Soup."

Yes. Good Tris.

"You look familiar," she says.

 _SUPER RANDOM FLASHBACK_

 _I wake up from the aptitude test that everyone has to take, and Tori, the woman administering my test, stares at me in shock. I hold back a smile, knowing that she must be staring at me like that because I just went through that test like a champ._

 _But then, she runs over to the door and throws it open before looking around frantically. Once she has seen that there is nobody outside, she slams the door shut and runs back over to me._

 _"Don't tell anyone about this," she yells, as she grabs my shoulders._

 _"About what?" I ask. "My results?"_

 _"You don't have results!" she says. "Well, actually you do, but like, you have too many results! You're only supposed to have one, but you have three: Pitiful, Nerds, and... Barbaric."_

 _"No way!" I gasp. "But this test was supposed to tell me what to do with my life!"_

 _"Well, the test didn't work on you." She looks around again before looking back at me. "That means you're... Defective."_

 _"A detective?" I gasp again. "I could totally work with that!"_

 _"No!" She groans. "Defective! You're Defective!"_

 _"Well, that's not very nice," I pout._

 _"No, it means..." She shakes her head. "Never mind, just don't tell anyone about your results."_

 _"Fine, you jerk," I mumbled, as I walked out._

 _END OF RANDOM FLASHBACK_

"Well, that was weird," I say.

"What?"

"But yeah, I totally remember who you are! You're that jerk that called me defective."

"I wasn't calling you defective, I was calling you _Defective_!"

"I don't hear a difference," I say, confused.

"Well, whatever." She shrugs. "Do you want a tattoo?"

"If it means I get to talk to you," I say.

"I have a boyfriend."

"I meant about the... defective thing you keep mentioning," I say awkwardly.

"Oh, right!" she says. "Well, we can't talk about that here, but you can totally pick a tattoo."

I nod and walk away to look at the options because I know that I'll be able to get Tori to talk even though she said she wouldn't because I'm a real champ at stuff like that. There were even some nights when I would ask my parents _questions_ and they would answer without hitting me with a ruler for being curious. I'm that good.

After I've looked at the tattoos for a while, I decide on the most beautiful design there is. I pick up the sheet and smile down at it, thinking about how it could be a symbol of my family so that I will always have them with me. I carry the sheet over to Tori and she looks at it and frowns.

"You want three stick figures with wings?" she asks.

"Isn't it beautiful?"

"A five year old drew this," she says. "We only hung it up to make him happy."

"Well, he is a real artist in the making."

She rolls her eyes and takes the sheet out of my hands, as she leads me to an empty chair.


	7. Chapter 7

**Ahh thank you guys for your support and comments! We're so glad you guys like it! And we're also glad to be reunited so that we could get this chapter out so quickly haha! Happy reading! :)**

* * *

So, Tori was in fact serious when she said that she wouldn't talk at the tattoo parlor. But either way, I still got an awesome tattoo, so that's pretty sweet. When I showed it to Tina, she seemed shocked by how amazing it was. She even said that she couldn't believe that I got it. Probably because I used to be pitiful, but now I'm super barbaric.

As we file into the training room the next morning, Four glares at us wordlessly as always. In fact, the room is pretty quiet until Eric strides in, slamming the door shut behind him.

"Everybody, shut the hell up!" he yells, and I wonder why he always thinks we're talking when we're not. "Four's gonna talk now."

"Thank you for the introduction, Eric, my friend." Eric groans, as Four turns the chalkboard so we can see it. "Today, we are going to be fighting. Since there's an odd number of you guys, one of you won't be fighting. But there's totally no favoritism involved."

I look at the board and see that I am not fighting today. Probably because I am the weakest, not at all because Four kinda likes me. That's just crazy talk.

"Oh god!" Tina yells obnoxiously. "I have to fight Tank!"

"Who's Tank?" I ask.

"Moly, remember?" She points to the girl who growled at us during the first bed fight. "She decided to rename herself Tank, and Eric just allowed it because it's a four letter name."

As Tina speaks, Will and Alan go into the ring. Weirdly enough, my only male friends have to fight each other. I watch, as they stare at each other nervously. Eric, however, grins happily, as he walks to the edge of the ring with Four at his side.

"Now dance, monkeys, dance!" Eric screams.

"Sir, how long do we, uhm... dance for?" Will asks.

"Until you can't dance anymore!"

"Actually, that's not true at all," Four says calmly. "You can totally give up whenever you want."

"Not according to me!" Eric fires back.

"I totally respect your opinion, my friend," Four says, as Eric rolls his eyes. "But isn't Maxx in charge?"

"Maxx loves this idea! Look!" Eric points across the room. "Look how happy he is with this idea!"

We all turn around only to realize that Maxx has been standing in the corner this entire time. Uria wasn't kidding when he said that Maxx just kinda stands in the background, not saying anything. As we look at him, he grumbles in response.

"See?" Eric yells at Four. "Now dance until you can't dance anymore, monkeys!"

"I apologize for doubting you, Eric, my friend."

Eric groans loudly before telling Will and Alan to start. They both stare at each other nervously until Alan starts crying just like he does when we're trying to sleep. Will looks around confused, as Alan starts sobbing. Eric grimaces, as Will slowly walks toward Alan.

"Uhm... Are you oka-"

Alan squeals, as he throws a punch and hits Will in the face.

"You scared me!" Alan yells, as Will falls over. "Did I knock him out?"

"Sadly, yes," Eric sighs. "Well, that was thoroughly disappointing. There wasn't even any blood!"

Alan walks over to Christina and I, as Four walks into the ring and grabs Will's arm and starts dragging him out of the room. Probably to drop him off in the hallway so he won't be in the way. But that theory goes out the window when Four drags Will outside, and then he just doesn't come back. I gasp loudly, as I realize that we are now alone with Eric.

Oh wait! We still have Maxx! I turn around and look at the corner where Maxx was chilling before. Except he's gone now. Spooky. But anyway, that means we really are alone with Eric now. I can't help but think that that's just as bad as leaving kids with a babysitter that sharpens knives.

"Just you and me, kids!" Eric yells, as he sharpens one of his knives. "Next fight! Tank and Tina!"

Tank growls, as she sprints into the ring. Tina looks at me, wide-eyed, before slowly walking to take her place in the ring. Tank growls again, as she glares across the ring at a scared-looking Tina.

"Fight!" Eric screams at the top of his lungs.

Tina jumps to the side, as Tank rushes over to her and rams into the siding of the ring. She tumbles over, still growling. Tina runs back over to her and starts scratching behind Tank's ear. At first, I just think she's being stupid and I'll probably be able to get out of going to her funeral because I didn't know her for that long. But then, I realize that what she did was actually really smart. As she scratches behind Tank's ear, Tank rolls over and smiles and even licks Tina's arm.

"What the f**k!" Eric yells. "What is this?"

"Her weakness!" Tina yells back.

When I look at Eric, he has literally turned red out of anger, but then all of a sudden, he calms down and even smiles. It's kinda creepy, but I guess it's a good thing. Suddenly, he starts slow-clapping, and I'm all for celebration, so I join in. But then, he glares at me, so I stop.

"Good job, Tina," he says. "Now come back out here so I can reward you."

"Oh, word?" Tina says, as she runs out of the ring before Tank can wake up from her trance.

"Word." Eric nods, as Tank starts growling again. "Everyone, follow me!"

Tina grins at me, as we all start following Eric to the door of the training room. Tina ends up ahead with Eric for some reason, as they talk about her victory and how awesome she is. I wonder why we're walking so far, and then I realize that we're headed for the Chasm. Maybe he's going to let us throw coins in so we can make a wish to be as awesome as Tina. Suddenly, Eric stops at a spot right above the Chasm.

"Gather around, initiates!" Eric yells, even though we are all right next to him. "The real reason that I brought you here is because Tina cheated, and now she needs to be punished."

"Wait, what?" Tina says, her eyes wide. "But I totally won that fight!"

"With trickery! Plus there was no blood, again! That's not a requirement, but I'm bloodthirsty so that makes me mad!" Eric snarls. "So, now, as punishment, you have to hang over the Chasm for an hour while we sit here and watch!"

"An hour?" Tina shrieks.

"Can we make popcorn?" Drew asks from the back of the crowd.

Eric gives a thumbs-up.

"This is crazy!" Tina cries. "That's not even possible!"

And as Tina continues to babble, I decide that I better get us out of this because Tina is my only friend besides my weird male friends, one of which cries all the time and the other recommended that I get a nipple piercing. Gross. So, I try to think back to the fight with Tank to see if I can somehow get Tank in trouble instead of Tina. Suddenly, an idea pops into my head, and I gasp.

"Eric!"

"Shut the hell up!"

"I just thought you would want to know that Tank has been calling herself 'The Tank' which is not a four letter name!"

"WHAT?" Eric screams, as he runs over to Tank.

I watch, as he picks up the unsuspecting Tank and chucks her into the Chasm. He stands there for a moment before he suddenly sighs and smiles.

"Ah, violence," he sighs before turning to look at the rest of us. "Training is over. Go away so I can enjoy this moment."


	8. Chapter 8

**Sorry this took so long, we've both been busy but we've finally been reunited! :D Thank you guys for all your love, and we hope you like this chapter! Let us know what you think, we always love reading your reviews! :)**

* * *

When I wake up the next day, I go to the bathroom to change because I don't want to subject anyone to the view of my hideous body. I guess I took a really long time changing or something because when I come out, I see that somebody has spray-painted the word "Stiff" on the bed that I was sleeping on last night in red paint.

As I slowly walk toward it, I feel everyone's eyes on me. But when I look around, I see that Pete is the only one smirking at me, so I turn to face him.

"Who did this?" I ask him.

"Take a wild guess!" he says with a mischievous grin. And then it hits me.

"Pete, I can't believe it! You did this!" I say, and he starts cackling. "How did you know red is my favorite color?"

His cackling stops short, and he gives me a confused look. I smile, as I look back at the mattress.

"And you even gave me a nickname that relates to my old faction!" I yell happily. "You must really like me, Pete!"

Before Pete can respond, the doors to the dormitory fly open, and Eric storms in closely followed by an angry-looking Four. For a second, I wonder what he could be mad about. But then, I remember he always looks like that.

"Initiates, shut the hell up!" he yells, as they stop in the middle of the room. "I have a very important announcement to make."

He looks around and suddenly, his eyes land on the masterpiece that is my mattress. He slowly creeps over to the bed, glaring at it the entire time.

"What," he growls, pointing at the mattress, "is that?"

"A mark of friendship," I tell him confidently.

"No!" he yells, as he storms over to the bed and grabs onto it. "It's a violation of our way of life! Four letter names only! Who did this? It doesn't matter! I must dispose of it immediately!"

"Let me help you, Eric, my friend!" Four says, as he runs over to grab the other side of the bed.

Eric groans loudly, but I can't tell if it is because of Four or because of how heavy the bed is. Maybe both. Either way, within seconds, Eric and Four have run out of the room with the bed.

"To the Chasm!" I hear Eric yell.

I can't help but feel a little guilty, as we all stand there in silence, taking in what just happened. How could they just come in here and take away that beautiful masterpiece that my new friend made for me? This place really is barbaric. I look at Pete, who is still looking around, confused. Poor guy, he's probably traumatized that his masterpiece was destroyed.

"Sorry, Pete," I say, shrugging my shoulders. "Don't worry, we're still friends."

He stares back at me with a weird look, so I just shrug my shoulders and turn around to go back to my old friends who were just sitting there this entire time.

"I wonder what the important announcement was," Alan says suddenly.

"Eh," I say. "It was probably nothing."

* * *

After that, we go into the training room like normal, but for some reason my new friend Pete doesn't walk with us. Probably because he doesn't want to make his posse feel left out. And when I say posse, I mean Drew. Because their other posse member, Tank, kinda got thrown into the Chasm.

When we walk in, I look at the chalkboard to see who I will be fighting today. Sure enough, I see that I am paired up with Pete. I'm not worried though. I'm sure my friend will go easy on me.

"Hey," Alan whisper-shouts quite obnoxiously, as he nudges me. "Pete's way bigger than you. He could totally kill you."

"But he totally wouldn't though."

"Okay, but if he does try to kill you," he continues, "you should just pretend to go unconscious so that they have to stop the fight. And then, you know, you won't die."

Suddenly, he sniffles. And then, out of nowhere, he is full blown crying. I look at him awkwardly, not knowing what to do, as he sobs into his hands. I wasn't kidding when I said he cries _all the time._

"Why are you crying now?"

"I don't know," he sobs. "I just have a lot of feelings."

Luckily, Eric starts speaking, so I don't have to say anything else to Alan. Instead, I shift away from him uncomfortably as he continues to cry more quietly now.

"Everyone, shut the hell up!" he yells. "We're going to be fighting again today. No trickery this time! I will be watching."

He glares at Tina for twenty-two seconds, as we all stand there awkwardly. Four clears his throat, making Eric look at him.

"So, yeah... Let's fight," he says.

"Right!" Eric grins. "First up, Tris and Pete. Let there be blood!"

Well, that's disturbing. But anyway, I follow Pete into the ring. As I am walking, Four comes up behind me and grabs my arm and yanks me backwards.

"Remember what we talked about, Tris," he whispers frantically. "Always keep tension-"

"Here," I say, as I pat my boobs. "I remember. But don't worry, it's gonna be totally fine."

He nods and releases my arm so that I can continue to walk into the ring. Pete stands across from me with a super determined look on his face, but I know that it is just for show. So, I decide to growl at him, just for dramatic effect.

"Dance, monkeys, dance!" Eric screams at the top of his lungs.

And then, all of a sudden, Pete lunges at me. Really forcefully. And it seems like... He's not pretending. He's not pretending! I shriek, as I dive out of the way and run to the opposite end of the ring.

Pete runs after me for a while. But eventually, he stops and stands in the middle of the ring with a tired look on his face, as I sprint in circles around the ring so that he can't catch me.

"Is this even allowed?" Pete yells to Eric. "How am I supposed to hit her?"

"Hit me?" I yell, as I continue to sprint around the ring. "I don't understand! I thought we were friends!"

"Come on," Eric groans. "It's been like thirty seconds, and still no blood!"

Pete continues to watch me running circles around him- _literally-_ for another minute before he starts inching over to the edge of the ring. At first, I think that he is going to surrender, and I can't help but feel so proud of myself that I decide to pat myself on the back as I run.

Unfortunately, that pat on the back distracted me enough so that I didn't realize that he was actually sticking out his foot to trip me. I end up sprinting right over his foot, and I fall down on my face. I start to push myself back up, but then I remember what Alan said.

I sigh dramatically, as I let my body go limp so that it looks like I am unconscious. As I lay there "unconscious," the room goes quiet for a moment. Just as I open one of my eyes to see if they're really buying this, Four begins to sprint out of the room.

"I can't handle this!" he yells, as he disappears from the room.

Eric just rolls his eyes, as he walks toward the ring. Luckily, he doesn't seem to notice that one of my eyes is open, as I watch him approach Pete. He doesn't stop walking until his face is just an inch away from Pete's. Pete shifts uncomfortably, but he doesn't back up, as Eric gives him a nod of approval.

"Good job, Pete," Eric says quietly. "Tripping your opponent was a very clever idea."

"Uhm, thanks..." Pete says awkwardly.

"Lucky for you," Eric continues. "You don't have to trip _me._ I already fell for you. Get it?"

I watch with my one open eye, as Pete stares back at Eric with a very confused look on his face.

"Should we take her to the hospital?" someone calls out.

"Oh, right," Eric says, glancing down at me. He sighs and walks away from a scared-looking Pete. "Yeah, somebody get on that."

I close my eye, as I hear someone shuffling over to get me. The person picks me up, and I recognize that it is Alan by his scent. I have everybody's scent memorized by now, it's one of my hidden talents. As Alan carries me out and to the hospital, I start to feel proud that I was able to convince everyone that I am actually unconscious, and I have to remind myself not to pat myself on the back again.

* * *

Once all the fighting is done, Tina, Will, and Alan come to visit me in the hospital. As they sit around my bed, Tina is the first to speak.

"Wow, you look even more hideous than usual," she says.

"I know," I sigh. "It's because I fell on my already hideous face."

"Bummer. I fell on my face, too," she says, pointing toward Will. "While I was fighting this guy."

"It's okay, though," Will says to Tina. "Even with that bruise, your face isn't hideous. Unlike some people. No offense, Tris."

I nod my head in response. It's so good to have such honest friends.

"So, anyway, I think we're missing dinner," Tina says. "And apparently, we care about dinner more than you, so we're gonna go to dinner."

"I understand," I say, as they stand up.

I say goodbye to them, as they head for the door, but Alan remains seated in his chair. As I stare back at him, I find myself hoping that he isn't going to start crying again. Luckily, he doesn't.

"So, guess what," he says. "When I got back to the training room, Eric told us what the important announcement was!"

"Oh, cool," I respond.

We sit in silence for a moment, as he stares at me expectantly.

"Do you... do you want to know what it was?"

"It's okay, you can go to dinner," I say. "My good friend Pete can tell me later."

"But... Pete tried to attack you," he says slowly.

"I know, but it was only because he had to put on a show for Eric. I understand now."

"Oh, okay... Well, Pete might be busy later," he tries again. "So why don't I just tell you now?"

"If you insist, Alan."

"Well, they're taking us on a field trip to the fence tomorrow morning."

"What time?" I ask.

"Well, Eric just said 'really f**king early,' so none of us actually know."

I nod my head at him. We stay quiet for a moment before he smiles a little at me.

"By the way," he says. "You shouldn't pay attention to Tina. Your face doesn't look bad. I mean, it looks good. It always looks good. I mean... er, brave. It always looks brave. Your brave face. I mean... Oh god, why am I so awkward!"

Finally, he stands up and runs from the room. I sigh in relief. At least he didn't cry again. I lie there for a few minutes until a nurse walks into the room and gives me a funny look.

"What's up, doc?" I ask.

"You know we already checked you out, right?" she says. "There's really no reason for you to be here."

"Well, fine," I say, offended by her snootiness. "I have a trip to go on anyway."

And with that, I get up and strut past the nurse, as I make my way back to the dorms.


	9. Chapter 9

**Hi all! So just a quick shoutout to CrazyFaerieSoul: Your review cracked us up lol! Thanks for your feedback!**

 **We hope you guys like this one because we loved writing it! Let us know what you think! :)**

* * *

I wake up the next morning when Tina smacks me in the face with her pillow. I groan and look around to see that everyone else is already up and walking around and doing Barbaric stuff. When I look back at Tina, she is already dressed, and she is staring down at me.

"Hey, wake up," she says, poking me with the pillow. "We gotta go."

"How much time do I have?"

"Not much since I decided to completely get myself ready and dressed before I woke you for some reason." She looks at a watch on her wrist that I didn't know she had. "Like five minutes."

I groan, as I push myself up. After all, I pretended to take a beating yesterday, so I can't let everyone see that I'm perfectly fine. If Eric found out, he might throw me in the Chasm like Tank. And I can't swim, so that would suck.

"I'm gonna go get some breakfast while you get ready," Tina says.

"Thanks, Tina," I groan dramatically, as I start to slowly change my clothes.

"Why are you thanking me?" she asks. "Oh, did you want me to get you breakfast too?"

"I kinda thought that's what you meant..."

"Oh... I mean, yeah sure I can do that..." she mutters, as she leaves the room. "So needy."

I smile to myself, as she leaves. That's the good thing about Barbaric: if you get hurt in a fight, you get a comfy bed in the infirmary and friends taking care of you all for free. It's like a vacation!

I look around to make sure there is nobody left in the dorm before I start changing and getting ready at lightening speed. When I have finished, I run to the door. As soon as I leave, I start limping again so that nobody will suspect anything.

Tina approaches me, just as I start limping away from the dorms. I almost attack her when I see the muffins in her hands, but luckily she holds one out for me before I decide to go through with it.

"Here," she says, looking down at my feet. "Actually, hold them both for a second. I'll tie your shoes for you."

"Oh, right..." I say, as she crouches down in front of me. "It hurts too much to bend down and tie them... So I didn't."

Nobody needs to know that I never learned how to tie my shoes.

But anyway, while Tina is doing that for me and being the super awesome friend that she is, my stomach starts rumbling, so I eat my muffin in one bite. But she's taking a really long time, and I'm still hungry, so I decide to eat her muffin too. Unfortunately, she stands back up before I can think of a way to replace it.

"There we go," she says. "Hey, where's my..."

"What?"

"Tris... Did you eat my-"

"No."

"Liar!" she yells. I forgot, Assholes can always tell when you're lying. "Goddamn it! That was the last muffin! Why the f**k am I even friends with you?"

"Because you feel prettier standing next to me?" I suggest.

She looks at me for a moment and sighs.

"Yeah..."

Finally, we start walking toward the Pitt, which is like the center of life here at Barbaric. I've heard that it's named after some guy named Brad Pitt because he made a bunch of donations. Anyway, Tina and I sprint through the Pitt and toward the exit. As we run, I start to wonder why they make us jump off a rooftop to get here when there's a perfectly good door, but whatever.

"How are you running like that?" Tina asks, as she looks back at me sprinting.

"Uhm... Adrenaline?"

"Oh!" she yells, as we continue to sprint.

We make it to the tracks just as the train is arriving.

"Tris! I was hoping you wouldn't make it!" Will shouts over the rumbling of the train. "I mean, er... _afraid._ I was afraid you wouldn't make it!"

"Fear not, friend!"

I look around and realize that everybody is jumping onto the train. Just as I start to contemplate how I can jump on and still look all beaten up, Alan picks me and chucks me into the car before he jumps on as well. I groan in real pain, as I lay face-down on the floor.

"Sorry," I hear Alan say, as he helps me up. "I was just really scared you weren't gonna make it."

As I dust myself off, I look around to see that Will and Tina also made it and now they are standing against the wall nearest to Alan and me. Pete and Drew stand against the wall across from us. I decide to wave at him, and he just smirks back at me.

"Feeling okay there?" Pete says, raising his eyebrows at me. "Or are you feeling a little... Stiff?"

Him and Drew start cracking up, and I laugh along too. _Stiff._ That's his nickname for me. How clever.

"I'm feeling much better," I say, and they stop laughing. "Thanks for your concern, Pete!"

I walk over to him and lightly punch his shoulder like the other Barbarics do with their friends.

"What the..." he trails off, as he gives me a funny look.

"No fighting!"

Four breaks in between us and pushes us both backwards so hard that we end up slamming into the walls of the train. I groan in real pain, as I rub my lower back. I look at Pete who seems to be struggling to get up. I hurry over to that side of the train and help him up. When he stands up completely, he gives me a funny look again. I decide to lightly punch his shoulder again to ease the tension, but before I can finish, he pushes me away from him.

"Would you stop that?" he says angrily, as I stumble backward.

"I can't handle all this fighting!" Four cries, as he jumps off the train.

"Uhm..." Tina points toward the opening. "Should we... tell Eric?"

"Tell me what?"

We all jump, as Eric somehow comes up behind all of us. For some reason, he looks at me, so I point toward the opening.

"Four jumped off the train," I tell him.

He looks at the opening, and I look as well only to see Four sprinting along side the train with a very determined look on his face.

"Yeah, he does that sometimes," Eric says, rolling his eyes.

Eric then wanders away to do some Eric stuff, as we all stand there. The entire train ride, I stand by the doorway and watch Four sprint alongside the train. Surprisingly, he never gets tired.

"What do you think is out there?" Tina asks.

"Four," I tell her. "Look, he's right there."

"I meant past the fence..."

"Oh." I shrug my shoulders.

"A bunch of dirty hippies," Alan offers.

"No," Tina sighs. "Past the farms. What are we guarding the city from?"

"Monsters!" Will yells dramatically.

What a Nerd. Luckily, the train starts to slow down, which means we are close, so they stop talking. I watch Four continue to sprint ahead of us until he is no longer in sight, as the train slows to a stop. I can't help but wonder how we are going to find him when we get off the train. And I wish he would stop leaving us alone with Eric.

Eric gets off the train wordlessly, and we all follow him into the yellow fields. We are definitely in Hippie territory now. We start walking toward the fence where there are tons of Barbaric guards marching around. One of them stands there, holding onto Four's arms, as he looks down sadly.

"I believe this belongs to you," the guard says to Eric. "He almost sprinted into the fence again."

"Thanks, bro."

"I'm sorry, Eric, my friend," Four says, still looking down.

"Shut up, Four." Four nods, as Eric turns to face us. "So this is where you'll be working if you get a low rank. Take a good look."

I look at the fence that guards our city. It is about three feet tall, and it reminds me of the fences that some of the fancy Erudite people have around their houses.

"So..." Tina looks down at the fence with a confused look on her face. "What exactly is the fence guarding the city from?"

"It's guarding the city from-"

"Monsters!" Will yells once again, waving his arms around.

"Shut the hell up!" Eric yells before he starts grumbling under his breath.

He walks away without answering the question, so Four decides to take his place.

"So anyway," he says. "If you're ranked low and assigned to the fence, that's basically what you're doing for the rest of your life."

"What rank were you?" Pete asks out of nowhere.

Four's eyes darken, as he looks at Pete intensely.

"I was first," he says.

"And you chose to do this?" Pete asks.

"My first choice was guarding the fence," Four says solemnly. "But-"

"We said 'no' because he kept running into the fence," the guard mutters. "Do you know how much it cost to keep building it back up every time you broke it?"

"I'm sorry."

I wonder what I will choose when the time comes. I could work in the control room. I hear that's where Four works when he's not training us. But it's not because I have a crush on him or anything... I just like watching people.

I could also work in the tattoo parlor, helping Tori. Maybe then I could find out more about this Defective thing that she keeps talking about. But Tori isn't very friendly, so that might not be fun. I could also work making weapons or fighting for entertainment.

But I don't think people would enjoy watching me sprint around a ring to avoid getting hit, and so far that's the only type of fighting I'm good at.

So, I guess being a Dauntless leader is my best option because it's the one thing I might be good at.

"So, anyway," Four says awkwardly. "You guys can look around and whatnot for a minute."

Before any of us even have a chance to move or speak, Four walks away quickly. The others shrug and start to wander away to look at the fence. My eyes follow Four, as he stops a few feet away and kneels down in front of the fence before resting his head against it. I look around, but nobody else seems to see him, so I decide that I should go check on him.

"Uhm... Four?" I say, as I stand over him.

He murmurs something, but I don't hear it since his face is still resting on the fence.

"I can't hear you."

He lifts his head and sighs dramatically before looking up at me.

"This is where I tried to give Eric a friendship necklace," he says sadly. "But he wouldn't take it."

"That sucks." He nods his head wordlessly. "Well, I mean, I can totally be your friend if Eric keeps being mean to you."

He looks like he's going to smile for a moment before his face becomes serious again and his eyes darken once more.

"No," he says, looking past the fence. "Only four."

I look past the fence as well, trying to figure out what he is looking at. And then, I realize that a truck is slowly coming in our direction, but Four doesn't seem bothered by it, so I don't move either.

"Four, move!" the guard yells, as he walks over to us. "We have to let the truck in."

He sighs heavily. "Okay."

He stands up, and I follow him as he moves out of the way. We stand among the other initiates, as ten of the guards line up in front of the fence.

"Ready, men!" the guard that doesn't like Four yells. "Heave!"

I watch, as the ten guards pull on the fence to allow entry to the truck. It's kinda confusing because when I saw these fences in front of the fancy Erudite houses, only one person was ever needed to open them. Even the children could open them. But I decide not to question it out of fear that Eric might throw me in front of the truck.

The driver of the truck is a happy-looking man with a sombrero, a beard and overalls. Definitely a Hippie. Once he has passed the gate, a few other hippies who were sitting in the back of the truck get out and start unloading crates of apples.

"Beatrice?" one of them calls out.

How would any of them know my name? I don't associate with dirty hippies! Oh wait, that's because I knew him before he was a dirty hippie. He walks toward me, and I immediately recognize him, as he was the brother of my only friend back in Pitiful.

"Roberta," I reply.

"It's just Robert now!" he says happily. "Isn't that great?"

My mother named him as well. And Robert's mother was too pitiful to tell her that she hated the name, so she used it. I would guess that she was pretty mad when she found out it was a prank at his fifth birthday. But I'll never know for sure because we weren't really allowed to express anger back in Pitiful.

But now that I'm in Barbaric, I can express anger as much as I want. I smile at the thought and decide to exercise that right by punching Robert in the stomach for embarrassing me in front of all my cool new Barbaric friends.

"Wow, you've gotten strong!" he says weakly, as he doubles over on the ground. He looks up at me.

"Hey, Stiff!" Pete yells to me. "Is that one of your friends from... Stiff-land?"

"They don't seem like very nice people," Robert says, frowning.

"What do you mean? That's just my good friend, Pete," I say, waving dismissively.

"Oh... If you say so," he says, forcing a smile, as he stands back up. "Well Beatrice, as long as you're happy here, that's all that matters."

He places his hand on my shoulder and looks into my eyes. I look at his eyes as well, which is something I never got to do because back in Pitiful, looking a boy in the eye meant you wanted to... Wait. Robert wants to marry me! I stare back at him, shocked. Sure, he is a Hippie now, but he knows the rules that we grew up with. He knows the rules!

"No inter-faction marriages!" Four yells, as he breaks us apart from each other.

Robert and I stare at Four for a moment, as his eyes widen.

"Hey," Robert says slowly. "How did you know-"

"Never mind how I knew!" he says shortly, as he grabs my arm. "Come on, it's time to go."

As Four pulls me away, I look back at Robert who simply shrugs before climbing back into the truck with his new hippie friends.

"You shouldn't be talking to other faction members," Four says when he finally stops walking.

"But Drew was talking to one of the Hippie girls," I point out. "And I'm fairly certain that Alan ate one of their apples."

"Yeah but I didn't see any of that," he says angrily. "I saw you talking to some Hippie dude, and you almost married him!"

"He just proposed by looking at me, I never said 'yes!'"

"Oh... Well, good!" He starts to walk away but stops and turns back to me again. "And I'm totally not saying this because I'm jealous! I'm just... really against inter-faction marriages."

"God, I can tell," I mutter.

He frowns and storms off, and Tina walks over to me.

"What was that all about?" she asks.

"Four got upset because one of the Hippies proposed to me."

"You said yes, didn't you?" she asks tiredly.

"I almost did," I say. "But then Four stopped us."

I shrug my shoulders, as Tina mumbles something under her breath. She walks away before I can ask her what she said, and I follow her, as we head back to the train.


	10. Chapter 10

**Hey there! Before this gets started, we just wanted to give a quick shout out to siriuslyobsessedwithfour, thedauntlessamity, and CrazyFaerieSoul for your support and feedback! We're so glad you guys like it, and I hope you guys like this chapter too. Let us know what you think! :)**

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It has been two days since the field trip to the fence. In that time, I finally won my first fight, so that's pretty sweet. It was against some girl named Myra who is way smaller than me. As I was about to go into the ring, Four stopped me and told me that if I sprinted around the ring again, Eric was going to kick me out of Barbaric, so I had to do something different.

As we were fighting, I remembered what Four said about keeping tension in my boobs. So that's what I did. I kept tension in my boobs, as I chest-bumped her, and she fell right over. Four was the only one who was visibly impressed, probably because the other initiates don't know the rule about keeping tension in your boobs.

Anyway, I drop my sheet on the ground, since I couldn't get a bed tonight. I mean, there are only four left at this point, so that's not surprising. As I put down my pillow and start to lie down like everyone else, a bunch of hooligans dressed in black hoodies barge into the dorms, waving flashlights around. One of them throws his flashlight at the wall dramatically and runs into the middle of the room.

"Everybody get the hell up!" he yells, and I realize that it is Eric. "We're going on another field trip!"

Four walks up beside him, and our eyes meet. For some reason, we both just stare at each other for a while even though Eric just told us to get up. I can't help but wonder if _he_ is trying to propose now, but before I can ask, Eric starts yelling again.

"Did you go deaf?" he yells at me.

I look at him, not sure how to respond, until Four runs up to me and hovers over me, as I lay on the ground.

"DID... YOU... GO... DEAF?" he yells, attempting to act out every word.

"Uhm..." I decide to take advantage of my supposed deafness so that I will not get in trouble for not getting up. "What?"

"Oh god! She's deaf!"

"Four, get the hell off the initiate!" Eric yells. Four frowns, as he stands up and walks back over to Eric. "You have five minutes!"

Everybody starts getting ready at lightening speed, as the swarm of random people leave the dorms. I, however, continue to lay there and stare after Four, as he leaves. Not because I like him or anything. I just like staring at people.

"Tris," Tina sighs, as she pokes me with her pillow. "Get up, I know you're not deaf."

I groan dramatically, as I start to get up. That is the downside of being friends with an Asshole- they can tell when you're lying about suddenly being deaf.

Within minutes, we have both gotten dressed, and I decided to wear my Velcro sneakers since Tina refused to tie my shoes for me today, and I don't really care enough to learn how to do it myself. We all sprint frantically through the Pitt to get to the train, shoving people out of our way as we go like the barbaric people we are.

When we get to the platform, Eric is pacing around and shining his flashlight at all of our faces, as we start approaching him. I notice Four standing off to the side with his arms crossed, so I walk over to him. He gasps when he sees me.

"I thought..." He pauses for a moment and then starts acting out his words again. "HOW... DID... YOU... GET... HERE?"

"Well, being deaf doesn't mean I can't run," I explain. "Wait. I mean... What?"

"You can hear me?" he asks.

"I, uh... It's a miracle!"

"Wow, it is!"

Luckily, he doesn't question it further, since the train starts to approach the platform. Everybody starts running and jumping onto the train, so we start running as well. Four jumps on the train within seconds. But then, he holds out his hand for me. I grab it, wondering why he is helping me, as he pulls me onto the train.

"Thanks," I say when I am standing inside.

"Just this once," he replies. "Only because you lost _and_ regained your hearing within like ten minutes! It must have taken a lot out of you."

"Oh... Yeah, totally."

He nods and walks away, probably to do some instructor stuff, so I go to stand with my friends Tina, Will, and Alan. My friend Pete sits across from us with his posse, Drew.

"All right, shut the hell up!" Eric yells, as he walks into the center of the car. "We're going to be playing capture the flag. Four and I will be choosing the teams, so deal with it. One team will get off first and hide the flag, and then the second team will get off and do the same. Don't be deceived by the fact that we're using paint balls. This is a very serious tradition! Any questions?"

"Yeah," Alan pipes up. "What do-"

"Good," Eric ignores him. "Let's start with transfers!"

"You can go first, Eric, my friend," Four offers.

Eric rolls his eyes. "Eddy."

Four looks around for a moment before his eyes land on me.

"I'll take the Tris," he says.

"Yes!" I yell triumphantly.

I clear my throat awkwardly, as everyone stares at me for a moment before Eric shrugs and starts looking around again.

"Pete," he says.

"Aw..." I say more quietly this time, upset that Pete and I will be separated.

"Tina," Four says.

"Drew."

"Will."

"Alan."

Alan gasps, as Eric calls his name.

"Since Myra is last..." Four sighs, as he looks at her, "I guess I'll take her."

Then, I stop listening, as they start splitting up the Barbaric initiates, because who cares about them? I look over at Alan, who is now crying most likely because he was put on the other team while Tina, Will, and I are together. Then again, I can never know for sure with him.

Once everyone is split up, our team gets off the train first. The last thing I hear is the sound of Alan crying, as I jump off, but I decide to ignore it. Once we have all gotten off, one of the Barbaric-born initiates walks up to Four.

"Where did your team hide the flag when you guys won?" she asks.

"Sorry, Marl," he replies. "But it's against the rules for me to tell you."

"Oh, come on, Four." She smiles and touches his arm flirtatiously.

I only remember that he is also from Pitiful when I see the look of discomfort on his face, as she flirts with him. Before anyone else can even notice it, he shoves Marl off of him so hard that she stumbles backward and falls on her back. Everyone watches Marl for a moment before looking back at Four, who clears his throat awkwardly.

"Any other ideas?" Four says, looking around the group.

"We should go to the carousel," Uria suggests after he has helped Marl back onto her feet. "That's where my brother's team hid it when they won!"

Everyone seems to agree with this, so we start walking. I just follow after them, since they seem to know where they're going. Eventually, we get to the carousel, and we gather around again.

"All right," Four says, as he leans against one of the horses and pulls the flag out of his pocket. "Somebody come up with a strategy."

Surprisingly, Will grabs the flag out of Four's hand.

"Some people should stay here and guard the flag, and some people should go and find the other team's flag."

Will has been so weird since he got here that I almost forgot that he is actually smart.

"Hey!" Marl grabs the flag. "Who put you in charge, you Nerd?"

"I did!" Will argues.

"We should be more defensive," Tina suggests. "We should wait for them to come here, and then attack!"

"No!" Uria cuts in. "We all go! We'll start a brawl!"

Suddenly, everybody starts yelling and arguing loudly. Marl even punches somebody at some point, but I'm not paying much attention to them. Instead, I decide to come up with a plan of my own because obviously they're not smart enough to do it.

I decide that I need to climb up somewhere so I can see where the other team hid their flag. Then, I can go get it myself while they keep arguing like idiots.

Ha. Tris is gonna save the day.

I look over at Four who is still standing near the carousel, looking up at the sky. As I observe him, I realize that he is much taller than me. He just might be tall enough. As the others keep arguing, I walk up to him, grab onto his shoulders and start climbing up. He seems completely unfazed by me, as I climb up onto his shoulders and start looking around.

"That's not gonna work," he says suddenly. "Somebody tried this last year. They couldn't see anything."

I guess I'll have to go higher. I jump off his shoulders and look around until I spot a Ferris Wheel. It is pretty far, but nobody noticed me climbing on Four, so I'm sure they won't notice if I leave to go climb a Ferris Wheel.

I start running for it, and luckily, it seems like nobody is following me. When I get to the Ferris Wheel, I notice that it looks like it hasn't been used in years. The rungs of the ladder are rusty and thin. But I'm sure it's safe to climb. I climb up a few of the rungs.

"Tris," a voice says below me.

I look down only to see Four standing at the base of the ladder looking up at me.

"What?" I reply.

"Whatcha doin'?" he asks.

"Just..." I take one of my hands off the ladder and lean off to the side. " _Hanging_ out! Get it?"

"Stop, you're gonna die if you do that."

"Ugh, fine," I groan, as I replace my hand on the ladder and start climbing again. "I'm climbing up higher so I can find their flag."

"Okay, here I come."

I look down at him, as he takes a deep breath and puts his hand on the ladder.

"You don't have to," I tell him.

"But I will," he says intensely. "I will... It'll be okay."

Well, that's weird. I stare down at him, as he slowly climbs up to meet me. He keeps looking down, and suddenly it clicks.

"Are you scared of heights?" I ask.

"Something like that," he says.

I shrug my shoulders and continue to climb up, and I can hear him behind me. Mostly because he is panting very dramatically, and he even starts to talk to himself.

"It won't happen this time," he whispers to himself frantically. "It'll be okay, I can do this."

I decide not to ask because he might think I'm rude for eavesdropping on the conversation that he is having with himself. So, I keep climbing in silence, as Four continues to breathe heavily and whisper to himself. He seems really scared, so I decide to do something to cheer him up.

I take one of my hands of the ladder again and look down at him, as I lean to the side.

"Look, Four!" I yell, making him look up. " _Hanging_ out!"

"Tris, stop."

"No hands!"

I take my other hand off the ladder, but then the wind blows, and I feel myself start to fall backwards. My arms flail in panic until Four reaches up and pushes me forward. One of the rungs collides with my nose, and I groan in pain, as I grab the ladder again.

"Are you okay?" he asks.

"No!" I groan.

"In all fairness, I did warn you."

I roll my eyes, as I continue to climb up. All I wanted to do was cheer up Four. Why do such bad things always happen to good people?

Finally, I reach one of the platforms. I pull myself up, but Four stays on the ladder and waits for me. I look around until I see a small light on the ground, which I assume is the other team's flag.

"I can see it, Four!" I tell him.

"That's great. Can we go back down now?"

"Come, look!" I say, gesturing for him to come up to the platform.

"Tris, I can't," he sighs.

"Yes, you can!" I reassure him. "Come on, you're Barbaric! Don't let your fear of heights stop you!"

He opens his mouth to say something, but then he stops and sighs instead. I start climbing up a bit higher so that I will have a better view, as Four approaches the platform. As I climb, I look down at him. He looks up at me one more time and takes a deep breath before finally stepping up onto the platform.

But then, something weird happens. The second that he sets foot on the platform, the entire Ferris Wheel lights up, and carnival music starts playing.

"Oh, no..." Four whispers.

Suddenly, the Ferris Wheel starts moving, and I grab onto it tightly, as it starts to rotate.

"Why does this always happen to me?" Four yells frantically.

"What?" I scream back. "What's happening?"

But by the time he starts to answer, the wheel has rotated so much and the carnival music is so loud that I can't hear him. Once I am close to the ground, I jump off and groan when I hit the ground.

Moments later, the music stops and the wheel stops rotating. I look up, as Four runs over to me and helps me up.

"Tris, are you okay?" he asks.

"What the f**k just happened, Four?" I yell at him.

"I'm sorry," he sighs. "That happens every time I stand on a high surface."

"What?" I scoff. "The rotating or the... carnival music?"

"Both, actually."

"Dear god, that's horrifying!"

"That's why I have to avoid the stairs in the compound," he says sadly.

"You've had such a hard life," I say sympathetically.

"I have," he agrees. "But now's not the time for that. You have to go back and tell the others what you saw!"

"Right."

I start walking, but he grabs my arm and pulls me back.

"I meant, where you saw the flag," he clarifies. "Not what you saw when I stepped on the platform. Don't tell people about that."

"Oh, right... I knew that."

I didn't.

But anyway, we finally run back to where everyone else was. When they see us, I don't even have a chance to speak since Marl starts acting like a jerk again.

"Did you turn on the Ferris Wheel?" she snaps. "Are you crazy? Now they know where we are!"

"Actually, _Marl_ ," Four cuts in. "While you were standing here like a jerk, Tris climbed the Ferris Wheel to find out where the other team hid their flag."

"That's right!" I say triumphantly, as I force my way into the middle of everyone. "Now you have to listen to me since I'm the only one who knows where it is! You would be nothing without me-"

"Tris, just tell us what you want us to do," Tina interrupts impatiently.

"Okay, here it is." I gesture for them to lean in so that we are standing in a huddle. "We're gonna ambush them. Go crazy. Just do whatever feels right. No survivors."

"Tris," Four says. "Maybe you should-"

"We're Barbaric now!" I keep going. "We're gonna start an all-out brawl!"

"Yeah!" Uria screams excitedly. "Let's do this!"

Four starts to protest again, but none of us pay attention to him, as we all start sprinting in the direction of the other team, screaming as we go. When we finally find the other team, I stay behind, as the rest of my team runs ahead to attack. I watch them for a moment, as the game erupts into all-out chaos, before I start running to the place where I remember seeing the flag, and Tina runs behind me.

I see the flag ahead of me, but the only person guarding it is Drew. While he is not looking, I shoot him quickly. He looks at me, as if he just realized that I was here, and groans in frustration. Tina and I both run past him. Before I can get to the flag, Tina grabs it and looks at me.

"Come on, Tris," she says exasperatedly. "You came up with the plan. Just let me have this."

"You're right, I guess," I sigh. "Unless... Wait, I have an idea!"

Just as our team realizes that Tina is holding the flag and starts cheering, I grab onto her shoulders and start climbing just like I did with Four.

"Tris, what the f**k!"

"Look!" I grin down at her, as I rest on her shoulders. "Now they'll know we did it together!"

She groans, although I'm not sure why. The others begin to crowd around us before I can ask. They continue cheering, as Tina carries me back to the train on her shoulders, like the champion I am.


	11. Chapter 11

**Quick thanks to CrazyFaerieSoul and thedauntlessamity for your feedback and love!**

 **This chapter is very very special becauuuse we included Four's POV! We hope you guys like it! Let us know what you think! :)**

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When we walk into the training room the next morning, I can tell immediately that Eric is upset about losing the game of capture the flag we had last night. I can tell because he kicks Tina in the shin as soon as we walk into the training room. Probably because she was the one who grabbed the flag, but it doesn't help that he already dislikes her.

When we have all gathered in the training room, and Tina is standing again, Four and Eric stand in front of us. Eric is pouting with his arms crossed, as Four stares at him expectantly. Surprisingly, though, Eric never tells us to shut the hell up. Instead, he just glares at Four.

"Would you like to tell them what we're doing today, Eric, my friend?" Four asks.

"I'm not talking to you," Eric mumbles, as he looks away.

"Okay," Four sighs sadly. "So today you guys are gonna work on your aim. You'll be throwing knives-"

"Finally!" Pete says. "Actual Barbaric stuff!"

"Butter knives to be exact," Four continues, and Pete groans. "Only Eric and I will use the real knives. Until you are ready, you will all be practicing with butter knives."

I nod my head in understanding. Knives are pretty serious weapons. That's why, back in Pitiful, we were only given plastic spoons to cut our food.

After Four demonstrates how to throw with his real knife, he tells us to pick up three butter knives each and try to hit the target across from us. I begin to wonder how they expect butter knives to stick into the target, but nobody else seems to be getting it, so I don't bother to ask.

Eric paces around behind us, his arms still crossed. His speed keeps quickening until he is running around behind us. I notice Tina collapse every now and then since Eric keeps kicking her in the shin every time he passes. I watch everybody practicing, and I almost laugh at how silly they're being. Taking their time and whatnot.

Clearly, the best way to execute this like a Barbaric is to just do it as fast as possible and hope it works. With that thought, I hold all three butter knives in one hand and throw them at the target quickly. None of them hit the target, but I'm sure that doesn't matter.

"Nice going, Stiff!" Pete calls out. "Now you're all out of knives!"

"Thanks, Pete!" I call back with a grin on my face.

He looks at me funny before shaking his head and looking back at his target. I turn around, deciding that I should probably ask Eric if this means I'm done. I turn around just as he has kicked Tina in the shin again before he continues running in the other direction.

"Eric, I..." I trail off, as I wait for him to run back over.

"Eric," I try again.

He runs back in our direction and kicks Tina in the shin before running away again.

"Am I-"

He runs.

"Done?"

He kicks.

I groan, as I watch him run back and forth. Finally, Four walks up to me, looking angry as always.

"Oh good, you're here," I say. "Am I done?"

"You're clearly not," he says. "You have to actually hit the target. And you know, throw them one at a time."

"Well, I really feel like you should have said that."

He stares at me for a moment before turning and looking at Alan who was standing next to me.

"Alan," he calls, making him look up. "Go pick up Tris' knives."

"What?" he shrieks.

"Oh my god, why are all the initiates going deaf?" Four yells.

"I heard you, but why me?"

"Not because I like Tris way more than I like you and if I had to pick which one of you I would rather get hit by a flying butter knife, I would pick you," Four says quickly. "I don't even know why you would suggest something so ludicrous."

"I didn't-"

"Alan, just go get them," I groan.

"Anything for you, Tris!" Alan says.

What a good little pet. If only he wasn't constantly crying.

Alan looks around, making sure that everybody is done throwing before he starts walking forward to retrieve mine. As he bends down to pick up the butter knives, Pete throws his last one, hitting Alan square in the butt. He stands up and turns around with tears in his eyes.

"It slipped," Pete shrugs.

I groan inwardly- or at least I thought it was inwardly, but it actually turned out to be out loud- as Alan starts to cry. Eric, who is still running around behind us, looks angrier now.

"There's no crying in Barbaric!" he yells, his voice sounding louder and softer as he runs back and forth. "Go stand in front of the target, Asshole!"

Alan continues to cry, but he does as he is told. He stands in front of the target, his shoulders shaking and his face completely wet and gross.

"You know what to do, Four!" Eric yells, as he kicks Tina in the shin.

"You're talking to me again, Eric, my friend!" Four points out happily.

Eric groans, as he continues to run around. Four turns back to Alan who is still crying in front of the target.

"So because you're a total baby and decided to cry during training, I have to throw knives at you," Four explains. "If you flinch, you become a Hobo, m'kay?"

Alan nods since he is crying too hard to speak. As Four starts getting the butter knives ready, I let out a sigh. I realize that unless someone stops this, Alan will be crying. Like _all night_. After that game of capture the flag last night, I need as much sleep as I can get.

"Hold up," I yell.

Everybody looks at me, including Four, who I care about the most for some reason. Not because I like him. I just like when instructors look at me.

"What?" Four says angrily.

"He's... too big of a target," I say. "It's too easy."

Yes. Good Tris.

"Is that a fat joke?" Alan cries.

"Well, you're small," Four says.

"Wait."

"Terrific idea!" Eric yells, as he runs behind us. "Initiates, switch!"

"Wait, what?"

"He means, go stand in front of the target," Four explains.

Alan runs away from the target without hesitation, as I start walking toward it. I remind myself that it is just butter knives. Even if Four does hit me, it won't be that big of a deal. Once I get to the target, I turn around and look at Four just in time to see him putting down the butter knives and picking up his real knives.

"Wait! What the f**k-"

"Same rules," Four says, ignoring me. "If you flinch, you're a Hobo."

I groan, as I watch him turn over one of the knives in his hand. Finally, he lifts it and throws it, and it sticks to the target above my head. I smile, as I realize that he is not going to hit me. This is all for show, after all. But he's not going to hit me.

He throws the second knife, and this time it lands closer to me, but I remind myself that he is definitely not going to hit me.

I watch him, as he throws the third knife. When it hits the target, it feels much closer. I look down only to realize that the knife came so close to my shoulder that it cut the fabric of my shirt, exposing my shoulder.

Back in Pitiful, we were never allowed to expose any part of our bodies. Especially not our shoulders! I gasp and clap my hand over my bare shoulder, as I look back at Four. I can tell by the look on his face that he did it on purpose. What a jerk!

"Okay, training's over," Four announces. "Everybody out."

Everybody begins to trail out slowly, but they are all knocked over, as Eric runs toward the exit, pushing them all out of the way as he goes. Once everybody has gotten to their feet and finally left the room, Four walks over to me.

"You did that on purpose!" I yell.

"Well... Yeah," he says. "That was the whole point."

"You know I can't show my shoulder in public!" I scoff at him. "You should know that better than anyone!"

"Yes, I do know that," he says.

"Then why would you do such a thing!"

"Clearly I didn't do it because I wanted to see your shoulder!" he yells back at me. "I don't even know where you're getting these crazy ideas from!"

"But I didn't say that!"

"Well... Good! Neither did I!"

He turns and starts to walk away. Before he can, I run up to him and grab onto the sleeve of his T-shirt, ripping it so that his shoulder is exposed as well.

"Tris, no!" he yells.

"There! How do _you_ like it?"

"No!" he yells again, as he covers his shoulder with his hand and starts running toward the exit. "So much indecency!"

* * *

 **Four POV**

I run back to my apartment with my hand still over my shoulder. As I run, I pass my best friend Zeke and his girlfriend, Shun.

"Four, hey!" Shun yells, waving her arms at me. "Come hang out with us!"

"I can't right now!" I yell back, looking away with shame. "I just can't!"

She yells something back, but I don't hear her since I've already run too far. Not that I really care about what Shun has to say anyway. When I finally get to my apartment, I slam the door shut behind me and press my back to the door, as I take a deep breath.

I just don't understand. I've been staring at her constantly, and she still hasn't realized that it's because I want to marry her. But she knows the rules, doesn't she? I even cut her shirt, and she still didn't understand! This is all so confusing.


	12. Chapter 12

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 **We're so glad you guys liked Four's POV as much as we enjoyed writing it! Unfortunately, there's no Four POV in this chapter, but we hope you guys still like it!**

 **Let us know what you think :D**

* * *

Today is the day before Visiting Day. Everybody is freaking out because they're not sure if their parents will come visit, but I'm not worried. I know that my parents will totally come see me. I was always the favorite.

Anyway, I stand outside the shower, waiting for the water to get cold. During my time in Pitiful, I was only allowed to shower in cold water. They always said that hot water was for the devil. As I stand there, I look down at my legs and admire my new leg muscles, which I guess I must have gotten from training and running around all the time. I decide to look at myself in the mirror to admire the muscles that I am gaining.

As I stare at the mirror, I realize that if I was back in Pitiful, my mother would have slammed the wall shut by now and started firing her gun. But instead, I get to just keep staring at my hideous self in the mirror. Amazing.

I go to take a shower to get ready for training today. After the shower, I walk out with a towel wrapped around me, and when I get back to the dorms, only Pete and Drew are there. They start snickering when I walk out, so I start laughing too. Those two are so funny.

"Didn't realize you were so skinny, Stiff!" Pete says.

"Thanks, Pete! I was thinking about going on a diet, but now I totally won't."

Drew and Pete exchange a look before Pete suddenly looks angry and grabs at my towel. Before I can react, he snatches it away and looks at me, confused. I look down as well. I am completely clothed since that's how I always used to take showers in Pitiful, but my clothes are still soaking wet from the shower. I sigh and put my hands on my hips, as I look at Pete who is staring at me with a weird look on his face.

"Very funny, Pete, but I need to dry my clothes."

Pete looks at Drew again, and for a moment neither of them say anything until finally Drew clears his throat.

"Yeah, well... That outfit is hideous!" he says.

Suddenly, I feel my face go red with anger. I stomp over to Drew, my fists clenched.

"You take that back."

"No!" Drew yells. "No times infinity!"

With that, I watch in shock, as Drew and Pete run out of the room, laughing together. I expected this kind of behavior from Drew, but not from my good friend, Pete. Drew must be a bad influence on him. I'll have to do something about that.

"Yo, Tris," Will calls, as he walks into the dorms. "Why are your clothes so-"

"Hideous?" I scream angrily.

"No... I was gonna say, why are your clothes so wet?" he says, shrinking back a bit.

"Oh." I sigh. "I just got out of the shower."

"Oh, sweetie." He walks toward me and puts a hand on my shoulder. "Did you forget how to human again?"

I shrug my shoulders at him, since I'm still too busy thinking about how mad I am at Drew to respond. Once I have found another towel and patted my clothes dry, we go down to the training room. Four and Eric stand there, looking angry as always. But at least Eric doesn't kick Tina over this time, so that's a step in the right direction. Once we have all gotten into the room, we stand there in silence, as Eric looks at each of us angrily. My eyes shift to Pete and Drew who are still snickering together.

How could a jerk like Drew take my friend Pete away? The nerve of that douche.

"Everybody shut the hell up," Eric finally commands, even though nobody was talking. "We're going to fight again today."

As Eric speaks, Four turns around the chalkboard to reveal who we will be fighting. I see my name next to Drew's. Perfect. This is my chance to get my good friend Pete back.

"Hey, you okay?" Alan whispers so only I can hear him. "You look a little-"

"What?" I scream at him. "Hideous?"

"Tris," Four calls out. "Shut up, we're doing stuff."

"Sorry."

"I was gonna say 'on edge'," Alan whispers.

"I'm just plotting revenge," I whisper back. "Nothing out of the ordinary."

"Oh, cool."

With that, we go back to standing in silence as we watch the first fight, which is Eddy and Pete.

"Finally!" Pete yells, as they walk into the ring. "Someone I can actually fight with!"

"That's the spirit, Pete!" Eric yells back. "I'm rooting for you! Only you!"

Pete looks at Eric for a moment before looking away awkwardly. Four also looks between the two with confusion before he finally shrugs and tells them to start. The suspense kills me, as they shuffle around, staring at each other like they're both waiting for the other to attack. But then, Eddy does attack. He punches Pete in the face, and Pete falls backward onto the ground. Eddy stares down at him for a moment, as he lies there motionless before he looks back up at Eric.

"Does this mean I won?" he asks.

"You've gotta be f**king kidding me," Eric mutters.

"Yes," Four says, glancing briefly at Eric. "You won. Good job, Eddy. Why don't you take Pete-"

"No!" Everybody seems to jump at the same time, as Eric starts running over to Pete. "I'll take him to the infirmary."

Nobody protests, as Eric picks up Pete and starts running to the door with him.

"TO THE CHASM!"

"Eric, no!" Four yells after him. "The infirmary!"

"Right. Force of habit," he says, as he runs out.

We all stand there in an awkward silence for a moment before Four clears his throat.

"So next up is..." he pauses to look at the chalkboard, "Alan and Tina."

Alan and Tina exchange a glance before they walk into the ring. As they stand in front of each other, Alan winks- or attempts to wink- at Tina, and she nods her head at him. I wonder if they're communicating in some made up language they learned during their time as Assholes. As I ponder it, Four tells them to start. Tina lunges forward automatically and punches Alan who squeals in response. I roll my eyes, as he starts to cry _again_. Tina continues to punch him, as he curls into a ball on the floor.

"I told you I would let you win!" he shrieks. "Why are you still hitting me?"

"You said you would play dead," she hisses back. "I can't stop until you play dead."

"Oh, right."

Alan collapses onto his back and closes his eyes. He really would be such a good pet if he wasn't crying all the time. Four sighs, as Tina looks at him hopefully.

"Okay," he says, rolling his eyes. "Tina wins, I guess."

Tina grins and claps excitedly before she kicks Alan to 'wake him'. He gets up quickly, and they come back over to join us. Then there are a few more fights, but nobody really cares about them, so why bother describing them? After a while, Will and Myra go into the ring. Will manages to win because he took my advice, which was to keep tension in his man boobs and chest bump Myra. After all, that's how I won last time. Except I don't have man boobs.

Finally, it is my turn to fight Drew. One look at his face, and I am ready to get my revenge and win back my friend Pete. Drew's words echo in my head.

 _That outfit is hideous... Hideous... Hideous._

"Tris, why do you keep saying 'hideous'?" Four asks, looking genuinely concerned.

"I thought I was just thinking that."

"No, you were saying it out loud. Very loud."

"Oh, sorry," I mutter, as I walk into the ring where Drew is already waiting.

I stop in front of him, and he smirks at me. I decide to growl at him to scare him, and I see that it worked since he looks a little concerned now.

"Fight!" Four yells.

Before Drew can react, I scream at the top of my lungs and run at him. I then decide to use my new awesome leg muscles by kicking Drew directly in the crotch. He gasps out in pain, and his face goes white, as he keels over. I start sprinting around the ring just in case he gets up to retaliate. Plus, Eric isn't here, so he can't make me a Hobo for sprinting around the ring again.

Once I have run around him once, I run back and kick him again, and he groans, though I'm not sure if it's from pain or frustration. Before I can run another circle, Four runs over and grabs me, making me stop.

"Tris, stop!" he yells. "You won."

"She won?" Drew shrieks from his place on the ground. "She kicked me in the balls!"

"Your point?" Four asks.

"This entire faction is f**cking rigged!" he whines.

"Well, whatever, she won." He shrugs before turning to look at me. "You should go for a walk. You look..."

"Hide-"

"Tris, no. Why do you keep saying that?"

"No reason..." I mutter, as I glare at Drew, "anymore."


	13. Chapter 13

**Hi all! Thank you to thedauntlessamity, CrazyFaerieSoul, siriuslyobsessedwithfour, and Guest for your feedback and support! And thank you guys for your patience!**

 **Special treat: My sister wanted to try writing a chapter, so this is written by her, not me! Please show some love for her, though, and let us know what you think!**

* * *

Today is Visiting Day. Everyone is up and getting ready. Luckily I woke up on time and didn't have to worry about Tina waking me up with only two seconds to get dressed.

I look across the room and see Drew still limping as he makes his way to the door to leave the dormitory. He must still be injured from how hard I kicked him yesterday with my new awesome leg muscles. I grin, pleased with myself and look around the room to find Pete, hoping he is proud of me. But he's not in the room.

The doors to the dormitory swing open and Eric strides in and yells, "Everybody shut the hell up!" I look past him and notice that Four isn't with him this time.

"I want to give you all a piece of advice for today," he starts, looking around at all of us, "If you're families show up, which most of them probably won't..."

Most families probably won't show up because they would have to jump off a building into a dark hole.

"Act as attached to them as you can," Eric continues with a smirk, "The more attached you are to your families, the better."

He turns to leave and then stops. We all jump realizing that Maxx is suddenly in the doorway, just quietly standing with his arms crossed. Eric turns back around to us.

"I was just fucking with all of you! You shouldn't even love your families anymore because you're Barbaric now and we don't approve of family unity." He turns, and seems to look for Maxx for approval, but he is suddenly gone again. Eric pauses, but then shrugs and leaves the dormitory.

I realize that my good friend Pete missed Eric's announcement. I should go tell him so he doesn't act too attached to his family.

I walk out into the dark hallway, but luckily my night vision has kicked in just like they said it would. As I head down the hall I realize that my collarbone is showing and gasp loudly. The people walking around me jump away from me.

 _Oh no!_ I think, _They're going to see my collarbone! They're going to be so disappointed!_

I'm about to steal someone's jacket to tie around my neck and hide my indecency when I remember the tattoo I got to remember my family. I look down at the little stick figures with wings. Such an amazing piece of artwork. There's no way they'd be mad at me for showing it off.

I reach the Pitt, which is filled with different families. I look around for my good friend Pete to warn him about Eric's announcement. I see him standing with his parents by the railing and start to go over. Before I can reach them someone comes up behind me and shoves me out of the way, knocking me down. I topple over, knocking over a few other people, and then look up and see that it was Eric that knocked me over.

I stand up and I'm close enough to hear Eric introduce himself to Pete's family. Pete looks uncomfortable and keeps shifting back and forth.

"So, you're Peter's instructor," Pete's father says.

"Pete," Eric corrects him, "And yes. And there's something important I need to ask you."

Pete's father looks confused, but nods.

"I'd like to ask for your blessing," Eric says very seriously. Pete looks alarmed and looks between Eric and his father. I'm not sure what 'blessing' Eric is asking for, but Pete's father looks annoyed.

"Absolutely not," Pete's father finally says, folding his arms.

I expect Eric to get angry at someone for telling him he can't do something but then he just grins and yells, "Psych! I don't need it!"

I'm about to go ask Pete what's going on when I hear a loud gun shot and a few people scream. But I know that sound.

I turn around and see my mother grinning, pointing her gun at the ceiling as a few people around her cower.

"Mom!" I start excitedly, going over to her, but then I remember Eric's advice and decide to fold my arms and scowl like Maxx, "I mean. Pitiful Mother!"

Yes. That should convince them I am Barbaric now.

My mother walks up to me, lowering her gun, but still smiling. "Well look at you, and your awesome new leg muscles!"

I unfold my arms and can't help but grin. I am very proud of my new leg muscles. But before I can say anything she gasps loudly. She sounds like me. My mother and I have always had the same gasp.

"You got a tattoo!" she says, leaning forward to look at my collarbone. In Pitiful it would have been against the law for anyone to be looking at my collarbone, even my mother.

"….What is it?" she asks, squinting at my tattoo.

"It's our family." I can't believe she can't tell. It's so obvious.

"This one is you," I point to the one in the middle. She looks up at me with tears in her eyes and smiles.

"I look beautiful."

I smile and then I realize that my dad isn't with her. I look around before looking at my mom who is still admiring herself in my tattoo.

"Where's dad?"

"He didn't want to jump off the building," she says with a shrug. I nod in understanding. Before I can think to say anything else, I look over her shoulder and see Four across the room. I must be staring at him for a long time because my mother looks around and asks loudly, "What are you looking at?"

I notice Four look over at us, so I try to whisper, "That's one of my angry instructors, that I'm totally not in love with."

"Oh?" My mother turns and walks away from me toward Four, so I follow her quickly. When she reaches him she smiles widely.

"It's Choosing Day, and I'm choosing you," she says with a wink. I gasp loudly because in Pitiful flirting meant you were a harlot. But then I think it might be okay since we are in Barbaric right now and my father isn't here.

Four looks at her for a moment, "It's not choosing day," he says very sternly, "It's Visiting Day."

"Oh…wait a minute!" My mother cries out and I jump slightly, but Four just stares at her, "I know you! Tobias, how are you?" she asks reaching out to pat his arm. Four looks alarmed.

"No! My name is Four," he says stiffly.

"Four?" she quirks her brow and touches her chin with her gun, "Hmm….did you not understand the rule about the four letter name?"

"How do you know about that rule?" I ask, shocked, not giving Four a chance to explain.

My mother looks at me and tilts her head to the side, "Beatrice, honey. We've been over this." She lifts her gun and fires at the ceiling, causing a few non-Barbaric families around us to scream and duck away.

"Oh right," I say, calming down. My mother is so good at being Pitiful, I forget that she used to be Barbaric.

"So, how has she been doing?" she asks Four, "She's ranked last isn't she?"

"No. She's doing well and it's definitely not because of any kind of favoritism. She's just gotten very good at learning where to keep tension."

"Oh, you mean here?" my mother asks, grabbing her own boob. Four nods seriously. I have gotten very good at keeping tension in my boobs.

But then Four says abruptly, "I'm going to leave now. I don't like being around Pitiful people." He turns and leaves.

I look at my mother who is wrinkling her nose.

"I wonder if someone gave him that nickname as a prank."

I shrug at her, but I don't think his nickname was a prank. I'm pretty sure my mother is the only one who gives people terrible names as pranks.

"So," I start and she looks at me again, "Do you want to meet one of my friends? She's an Asshole."

"I guess. I don't usually like Assholes though." I look around and see Tina with her family and start to lead my mother over to them. Before I can reach them a short woman stops me by grabbing my arm.

"Excuse me," she says in a small voice, "Do you know Al? I haven't been able to find him."

"Al? Oh, you mean the crybaby," I say, realizing she must mean Alan. She gets a strange look on her face.

"Um…never mind," she says and turns to walk away. I shrug and walk over to Tina and her Asshole family.

"Mom, this is Tina. She's a good friend, even though she's an Asshole," I then turn to Tina, "Tina, this is my mom."

"Beatrice never used to have any real friends," my mother says, "how has she been doing?"

Tina smiles at my mom, "Not bad. I look really pretty by comparison when I stand next to her, so she's really good for that."

My mother looks proud of me and I smile, until I notice Will and Cara walking over, and Cara looks angry about something. I wonder if she found out that Will and Tina might be together, and she doesn't want her brother to be with an Asshole.

"You should be ashamed!" Cara hollers, pointing a finger at my mother as she approaches us.

"Cara, chill out," Will says, half-heartedly.

"No! She should be ashamed! Pitiful people are ruining everything!"

"Hey, don't point your finger at my mom!" I say angrily. In Pitiful you're not allowed to yell at people, so I don't think my mother will be able to stand up for herself.

"I'll point my finger wherever I want!" Cara yells, waving her finger around in a rage.

"It's not polite to point," my mother says, tapping her gun to her chin again. Cara stops yelling and seems bothered, but I'm still angry at her for point and yelling at my mother. So I decide to exercise my right as a Barbaric and punch Cara in the stomach.

"Oh god, Tris!" Will yells as Cara doubles over and falls on the floor. I see Tina covering her mouth to keep from laughing and I grin. I turn to see if my mother is proud of me, but then she just grabs my arm and drags me away from everyone.

I stumble through the crowd with her until she leads us into an empty hallway.

"Mom," I say confused, "What's wrong?"

She lets go of my arm and looks at me very seriously, "Beatrice, what was your score for the aptitude test?"

Tori told me not to tell anyone ever, no matter what about my scores. But I figure it's probably okay to tell my mom.

"Tori said I'm…defective?"

"Defective," my mother says in a correcting tone, "not defective."

Tori said that same thing and I still don't hear the difference.

"You need to be careful. No one likes Defective people," she says.

"But what is def-"

"SHHH!" my mother shushes me frantically, "Never say that word!"

"But you just-"

"Be careful, Beatrice," she says as she starts to inch backwards down the hallway, away from me, "Don't let anyone know you're…Defective…..Defective….Defective…" she repeats it like an echo as she backs out of the hallway, until she's gone.


	14. Chapter 14

**Hi friends! Thank you to WeirdMal, thedauntlessamity, and CrazyFaerieSoul for your comments!**

 **Thanks for your feedback on the last chapter- my sister was very happy! This chapter is written by me again! I hope you guys like it :)**

 **Let us know what you think!**

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Since my mom basically just left in the middle of Visiting Day, I decide to go back to dormitory. Also because I'm not allowed to go back to the Pitt for the rest of Visiting Day because I punched Cara, but whatever. When I walk into the dormitory, I see Alan on his bed crying like usual. But unfortunately, he sees me, so I can't just leave. I groan inwardly, as he looks up at me, and I start walking over to him.

"So..." I clap my hands together awkwardly. "What's up, buddy? Did you know your parents are looking for you?"

"You saw my parents?"

"I think so. She was fat just like you."

"Well, whatever, I don't wanna see them," he mutters.

"Well, that's pretty shitty of you since they came all this way to see you."

He doesn't say anything, as I sit down next to him. Not to comfort him in any way- it's just because my awesome new leg muscles are getting tired.

"I just don't want them to know how I'm doing," he says suddenly. "I mean, I'm awful."

"Yeah."

"I've lost every fight-"

"And you cry all the time," I add. "Not very Barbaric of you."

"They would be so mad at me," he continues, ignoring me. "They would probably disown me!"

"You realize that you don't live with them or anything anymore, right?"

He starts crying again, and I groan inwardly again. Or at least, I thought it was inward. But when he glances at me, I realize it was out loud. That's awkward. But anyway, I realize that I have to say something nice if I want him to stop crying.

"You might not be ranked dead last," I tell him, patting his shoulder awkwardly. "You could be second to last, you know."

"You really think so?" he asks, smiling at me.

I cross my fingers behind my back like my brother always used to when I asked if he was going to transfer.

"Of course," I say through gritted teeth.

Suddenly, he dives at me and engulfs me in a really weird bear hug type of thing. Hugs are forbidden back in Pitiful unless it's someone you want to marry, so I figure that Alan must be flirting with me. But I totally don't feel that way about him. So I decide to elbow him in the face to get him off me, and luckily it works.

"What the hell!" he yells, clutching his cheek, as he starts to cry again.

"That was really f**ked up, Alan," I tell him.

"What? Why?"

"Because I already have a love interest in this story," I tell him, as I hop of the bed. "But we're cool, right?"

"Totally," he says sadly. "I definitely won't turn on you and try to kill you later or anything."

"Okay, cool."

With that, I decide to leave the dormitory since I don't really want to be around the cry baby anymore. I decide to wander in search of my actual love interest, but unfortunately, I never find him.

Later that night, when we go back to the dormitory, Four is standing there looking angry as always with a chalkboard propped on his leg. But Eric isn't with him this time. It feels odd not being told to shut the hell up before Four starts talking.

"So your ranks are on this chalkboard," Four explains. "I think it's pretty self-explanatory. If you're ranked high, you're the shit, and if you're ranked low, you kinda suck. The Barbaric-born initiates aren't included, so right now there's no way of knowing how many of you are gonna be Hobos. You kinda just have to deal."

With that, Four turns the board around so that we can see it. My eyes skim the list.

 **1\. Eddy**

 **2\. Pete**

 **3\. Will**

 **4\. Tina**

 **5\. Drew**

 **6\. Tris**

I pat myself on the back for not being last before I continue to look at the list.

 **7\. Alan**

 **8\. Myra**

"I was totally right!" I call out to no one in particular before looking at Alan who is crying again. "You're second to last! I called it!"

"Wait a second!" Drew yells, pointing at Tina. "How am I below her?"

"Because you lost to a weak initiate," Four says, looking right at me.

"Well, damn," I mutter.

Maybe I _should_ let Alan be my love interest instead.

"If you want a high rank, you can't lose to low ranked opponents," Four shrugs.

He walks away, as we all continue to stare at the rankings. That is, until Drew walks over to me and points an ugly finger at me.

"You'll pay for this!" he says before he, too, starts walking away.

"Hey, Drew!" I call after him.

"What?" he growls, turning back to face me.

"That outfit is hideous," I hiss.

He grimaces at me before he turns around and leaves the dormitory. Once he is gone, I look around for my friend, Pete, to congratulate him on being second. But when I turn around, he is sadly lying face down on the only remaining bed. I guess the fame is too much for him. But anyway, I decide to leave him alone.

I look over at Tina and Will who are doing some weird secret handshake before they look at me. Tina grins at me.

"Look at you!" She says. "Number six!"

"I know. I totally owned the first part of initiation."

"We should celebrate!" Will says suddenly.

"You guys go," Alan says, crying again. "I'm going to bed."

"Whatever," Tina shrugs. "Let's go!"

With that, we go and celebrate though I never actually say how. Probably cow tipping or something.

Anyway, that night it's pretty hard to sleep since Alan is crying louder than usual. But when I look around, I see that nobody else seems bothered by it for some reason.

I also notice that Eddy is laying in the one remaining bed. I can't help but wonder how he got it from Pete, but then I remember that the last time Eddy and Pete fought, Eddy knocked him out with one punch, so that makes sense. When I look around, my friend Pete is nowhere in sight.

But then, out of nowhere, the door to the dormitory creaks open, and someone shuffles in. Luckily, my night vision has kicked in by now so I can tell that it is Pete. In his hand he has a butter knife like the ones we use at dinner. He shuffles over to Eddy who is sound asleep and stares at him for a moment.

"Hey," he whisper-shouts, as he jabs Eddy with the knife. "Get up, we're gonna fight."

Eddy groans tiredly, as he pushes himself into a sitting position while Pete continues to jab at his side with the knife.

"What the f**k are you doing?" Eddy groans.

"I can't be second," Pete says, as Eddy stands up. "So I have to get rid of you!"

"With a butter knife?"

"Damn right!"

They stare at each other for a moment, and I can't help but wonder if I should intervene. But I wouldn't want to upset my good friend Pete, so I decide to let them go.

"Okay," Eddy says, confused. "Let's fight, I guess."

Pete growls and lifts his hand with the butter knife in it, but before he can do anything, Eddy punches him in the face. Pete falls back and just lays there on the floor, seemingly unconscious, as Eddy stares at him. I get up from my place on the ground, and Eddy looks at me.

"What have you done?" I demand, as I look down at Pete.

"He wanted to fight," he shrugs.

"You monster!"

"Okay, that's it," I watch, as Eddy puts on his shoes and walks over to where Myra is sleeping. "This place is getting a little too weird for me. I'd rather be a Hobo."

"Well, good!" I say. "Nobody wants a monster like you here anyway."

"He had a f**king knife," Eddy mutters, as he wakes Myra.

Once he has woken her up and told her that he's leaving, she immediately decides to go with him because you just can't separate love interests in this story. Pete is still unconscious and I am still sitting next to him when they leave. Moments later the door flies open, and Eric runs in.

"Everybody shut the hell up!" He yells, effectively waking everyone up. "My Pete senses are tingling!"

"Pete got knocked out," I tell him, pointing down at Pete's body.

"I knew it! Out of the way!"

Before I can move, Eric runs over and pushes me over before picking up Pete's body and running for the door.

"TO THE CHASM!"

"The infirmary!" I yell.

"Whatever!"

Once Eric has left the room, everyone looks around confused.

"What just happened?" Tina asks.

Everybody looks around at each other before they all seem to look at the empty bed at the same time. Suddenly, somebody yells.

"Bed fight!"


	15. Chapter 15

**Hi friends! Thank you to WeirdMal, MastaGamerita, and CrazyFaerieSoul for your feedback! We love it when you guys tell us your favorite parts lol, your comments make us smile! Anyway, we hope you guys like this chapter! Let us know what you think :)**

* * *

So I tried to visit Pete in the infirmary, but the nurse kept telling me that he didn't want to see me. Which is obviously a lie. But either way, I got so upset that I punched the nurse in the stomach and then decided to sulk around the compound. I decided to stop in a dark hallway so I could test out my night vision, but I got bored of that, so now I'm just chilling like a villain.

"Yo, Tris!"

I look up, as Uria rounds the corner and walks over to me.

"Hey, Uria," I reply. "How did you know I was back here?"

"I totally didn't follow you if that's what you're asking."

"I didn't-"

"Anywho, wanna come hang out with us?" he asks.

"Oh, I don't know," I sigh heavily.

"Come on!" He leans down to poke my forehead. "One of us! One of us!"

"Well, when you put it like that."

I get up, and he stops poking my forehead. Once I am standing up with him, we start walking through the dark hallways until we eventually reach a crowd of super Barbaric-looking people. I recognize them as Barbaric-born initiates. One of them grimaces at me.

"What's _she_ doing here?" he says snootily.

"She's the protagonist," Uria responds. "She has to be everywhere. Deal with it, Gabe."

Gabe rolls his eyes but says nothing else to that. Suddenly, they all start running, and I run after them. We run through the Pitt and all the way outside until we reach the train platform where a bunch of Barbaric members are waiting. As we run out, the train starts coming, so we keep running alongside it. I watch everyone pull themselves on, and I decide that this is my chance to show off and prove I'm good at climbing on trains just like them.

A grin spreads across my face, as I pick up my speed and throw my body into the train. But then, I fall flat on my face. My feet are still dangling over the edge of the opening, and I feel someone kick me all the way into the train just like they did the first time I ever jumped on a train. I would have thought that I would have been able to jump on the train by now without falling on my face. But whatever, it was probably just nerves.

I stand up and dust myself off before I realize that all of them are looking at me, even Uria.

"I meant to do that," I say.

None of them react. Creepy.

"You must be Tris," one of them says, as she walks over to me. "I'm Shun."

"Shun? That sucks. How did you know my name?"

"Because Four told me all about you!" she replies. "But totally not because he's in love with you or anything. He just secretly likes to gossip."

"Weird."

"Yeah," she shrugs. "And I'm one of his four friends, so he tells me, like, everything."

"That must be nice," I mutter.

"It is," she says with a smile. "At first, I thought it was weird, filling out an application to be his friend. But now that I got the position, it's totally worth it!"

An application? I never got an application. I feel jealousy for a hot second, and I think about punching Shun, but then I realize that would probably start a train brawl.

"Is Four here?" I ask.

"Nah. Last time he came with us, the weirdest thing happened," she says. "We got to the top of the building, and it suddenly just started like... rotating. It was the weirdest thing. But anyway, I guess it scared him because he hasn't come back since."

"Oh, well, that's because..." I trail off, suddenly remembering that Four told me not to tell anyone about what happens when he steps on high surfaces. "I mean... What?"

"What?"

"Are we almost there?"

Yes. Good cover, Tris.

Shun walks over to the opening of the train to look out, and then she grins at me.

"You called it!" she says. "We're here!"

And with that, she jumps off the train, and everybody starts to follow after her. Once we have all made it, we start running again. Luckily, I can keep up with them now because of my awesome new leg muscles. I realize that we are running toward the Hand-cock building. Apparently, before it was abandoned, it was known for selling adult videos. But I don't actually know what that means because my parents would always hit me with a ruler when I asked. Anyway, when we get into the building, we stop in front of the elevator. Apparently, one of the Barbaric members turned the power on so we can use it.

 _Ding!_

They continue to cheer, as we pile into the elevator, until one of them- a girl with a purple afro- turns to us.

"What floor, home slices?"

"100," I answer.

"How would _you_ know that?" she asks snootily.

"Because we like to keep it 100." The elevator goes silent, as they all look at me. "No?"

"Well, whatever," Shun says. "She's right, Lynn, we're going to the 100th floor. We're going to the roof!"

Lynn rolls her eyes and presses the 100 button. The elevator shoots up, making me fall over. Which then causes all of them to fall onto each other like dominoes. They all look at me angrily from their places on the floor, and I smile at them.

"I meant to do that, too."

When we get to the 100th floor, we all climb out to the roof together, and I can't help but wonder if we're going to have to jump off the building and into a gaping hole of doom like the one we had to jump into on our first day. But then, I see a guy who kinda looks like Uria standing next to some odd contraption.

"That's my brother, Zeke," Uria tells me even though I didn't ask. "He's one of Four's four friends."

Suddenly, I have the urge to punch Zeke too. I should probably work on controlling that.

"Who's the fourth friend?" I ask, deciding that Eric must be the third one.

"Laur," he tells me. "But I heard he's thinking about firing her for someone else."

"Really?" I ask, suddenly feeling hopeful. "Who?"

Before he can answer, Shun runs past us, squealing happily. We watch, as Zeke straps her into the odd contraption and pushes her off so that she goes flying. Weird.

"Zip lining," Uria says.

"What?"

"That's what we're doing," he tells me. "Because you've obviously never done it before, so how would you know what to call it?"

"Who's next?" Zeke yells.

Everybody lines up, and I end up behind a few of the Barbaric members. Luckily, they all go pretty quickly since it seems like Zeke is getting bored of strapping people in, so he's kinda half-assing it. When it is finally my turn, he straps me in and grins at me.

"Ready?" he asks.

"Not really, I-"

"Set?"

"This seems kinda loose, can you-"

"Go!"

He pushes me off, and I go flying just like the people I saw before me. For a second I feel scared, but then I remember that they totally wouldn't do anything to hurt me. Even though this is the one faction where that would be acceptable, but whatever.

Anywho, it's pretty cool. I feel like a bird flying through the air and whatnot. For a second, I think about Four and how sad it is that he'll never be able to experience it because of his weird power or whatever it is.

You know, I think about him all the time _plus_ I'm his designated love interest in this story. You would think that he would have at least given me an interview or something. What a jerk.

"Yo, Tris!" I look down and realize that I have stopped, and everybody who went already is standing underneath me with their arms connected. "Unstrap yourself, we'll catch you!"

"You promise?" I yell to them.

"Totally!" Shun yells back.

I squint my eyes at them, but I can't tell if they are crossing their fingers or not, so I just shrug and start unstrapping myself.

"Psych!" I hear them yell, as I fall.

And then, I fall face first to the ground. But don't worry, I'm the protagonist, so I survived.

After that, everyone else is caught, and I can't help but wonder why. But then, I reason that it must be because I'm the protagonist, so I'm the only one that could survive that fall. But anyway, after a while, I realize that it is Laur's turn. I start to feel jealous again since I am totally more deserving of the position of Four's friend than she is. When she comes down, everyone connects their arms to catch her. At the last second, as she falls, I jump back.

"Psych!" I yell. All of them look at me, including Laur who unfortunately is resting on everybody's arms. I shrug awkwardly at them. "My bad."


	16. Chapter 16

**Hi friends! Thanks to RosePhin, MastaGamerita, thedauntlessamity, CrazyFaerieSoul, WeirdMal, and Kayyla221 for commenting and for telling us your favorite parts, we love that! :P**

 **We're glad you guys are enjoying the story, and we hope you like this chapter!**

 **Let us know what you think! :)**

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The second stage of initiation starts today. I can't help but feel like a rock star for making it this far, but they're totally not treating us like rock stars at all. Now, we're just chilling in a dark hallway while Four takes us into a room one by one. He told us to just sit out here and test our night vision, but my night vision is already flawless, so I don't bother. I look across the hallway at Pete who is staring down at the ground.

"Hey, Pete!" I yell, making him look up. "Are you feeling better, my friend?"

"I'm not..." He sighs. "Yeah, whatever."

"I tried visiting you in the infirmary, but the nurse wouldn't let me in for some reason," I tell him.

"Because I told her not to," he mutters.

"You're so funny, Pete!"

He rolls his eyes, and the other initiates look between us, seemingly confused before Lynn decides to speak.

"So, which one of you is ranked first?" she asks, as she puffs up her purple afro.

"I am," Pete answers.

"I bet I could take you," Lynn says, as she starts to take off her hoop earrings.

"Lynn, chill out," Uria chimes in. "You know Four doesn't like when we fight."

"Yeah, last time he thought I was fighting with Pete, he jumped off a train," I add. "But we totally weren't fighting, because we're best buddies!"

"We're not-"

Before Pete can finish his sentence, the door at the end of the hallway flies open, and Four appears in front of us. He looks at us all angrily for a moment before he stomps over to where Pete is sitting and stares down at him for twenty four seconds.

"Pete," he says finally. "Your turn."

"Okay," Pete says slowly before getting up and following Four into the room.

"Good luck, best buddy!" I scream after him.

Pete does not react, but that's okay. He probably just didn't hear me. But it seems that Four heard me since he looks at me sadly for a moment, though I'm not sure why. When the door closes, we sit in silence for a few minutes before Lynn sighs and starts puffing up her afro again.

"What do you think is in there?" she asks.

"Monsters!" Will yells, waving his arms dramatically.

"What the f**k?"

"He does that sometimes," I explain.

Suddenly, the door flies open again, and Four comes out looking angry as ever. The suspense is killing me, as I wait for him to pick the next person. Then, suddenly, he walks over to where I am sitting and stares down at me. But this time, he only stares for twelve seconds. Probably because I'm too hideous for the full twenty four seconds.

"Tris," he says. "Your turn."

I stand up and follow him into the room. At the end of the room, there is a black desk chair, and next to it is some computer type of doohickey. Before I can look around much or ask Four for a tour, he pushes me forward until I reach the chair. I decide to sit down to rest my awesome new leg muscles, and he stays standing above me. I try to wheel myself away, but he grabs the arm of the chair before I can.

"So, here's the deal," he starts. "I'm gonna inject you with something-"

"With what?" I ask. "I feel like I should know-"

"It's a secret," he cuts in. "Anywho, then you're gonna be hallucinating-"

"It sounds like you're injecting me with the drugs!"

"Tris, no."

"Peer pressure!" I yell. "No means no!"

"Tris, stop, it's not a drug."

"Oh." I clear my throat. "Carry on, then."

"So, you're gonna hallucinate," he continues. "It's gonna be mad trippy, and I'm gonna watch it here on these screens."

"That's it?" I ask.

"That's it," he says, as he reaches for the needle. But then, he looks at me and stops. "Hold on, let me just move your hair."

I sit there, as Four pushes my hair back. For a while, I wonder what is taking so long. But then, he hands me a mirror and I look at myself to see that my hair is now braided back. Could it be that Four is trying to initiate friendship?

"This is standard procedure," Four says.

"To braid the initiate's hair?" I ask.

"Only when it's in the way of the needle," he says. "Also, it's a _french_ braid."

"Fancy."

"Yeah." He nods. "Ready?"

I nod my head at him and he goes to pick up the needle. When he comes back, he looks at my neck for a moment and sighs.

"It always takes me a couple tries," he mutters just before he jabs me with the needle.

Luckily, it seems like he got it since he puts the needle down right after.

"Oh, by the way," he says, as I start to fall asleep. "Your hallucinations are gonna show your biggest fears. But no biggie."

Suddenly, I am in a field. There is nothing special about it. It is just a normal field, so I decide that I must be in Hippie territory. All of a sudden, a crow waddles over to me and looks at me expectantly.

"What's up, little dude?" I ask it.

It waddles closer to me.

"That outfit is hideous!" it yells.

I let out a gasp before I punch the crow in the face.

I wake up, screaming at the top of my lungs. I only stop when Four slaps me. I groan in real pain and rub my cheek with my hand.

"That was amazing," Four says. "Tris, how long do you think you were in there?"

"It felt like hours!"

"It was like thirty seconds!"

"It didn't feel that way," I say, looking down dramatically.

"That was like way faster than everyone else." He pauses for a moment before looking at me thoughtfully. "Are you Defective?"

"What? No! I never-"

"Whatever, just checking," he says with a shrug. "Well, since you're all shaken up, I'll walk you back to the dorms."

"Did you do that for everyone? No wonder we were waiting for so long!"

"Nope, just you," he says. "But it's totally not because of any favoritism. I don't even know why you would suggest something so asinine."

"But I didn't-"

"Anyway, come on kiddo," he cuts in. "Let's go."

He starts heading for the back door, so I wheel myself after him in the chair. Just before he opens the door, he looks back at me and frowns.

"Tris, no, leave the chair."

I groan, as I stand up and walk over to where he is standing, leaving the awesome rolling chair behind. Back in Pitiful, we were never allowed to have chairs that fun.

"I've never seen anyone conquer a fear so quickly," he says as we walk.

"I know," I reply. "I'm pretty awesome."

I let out a sigh, as we reach the dorms, and he looks at me.

"What is it now?" he asks.

"I'm just worried that my friend Pete will be jealous," I say sadly. "I got through it so much faster than him. I don't want him to feel bad."

"If he was a real friend, he would understand," Four mutters.

"You're right! He'll definitely understand!"

"That's not what I-"

"Thanks for the advice, bro!"

And with that, I lift his hand so I can high five it before I walk into the dorms to tell Pete the news.

* * *

 **Four POV**

She called me _bro._

Surely that must mean that she wants to be my friend, right? I have thought about firing Laur so that I could give Tris an application. Laur is barely ever around. Plus she never paid the application fee. But Tris is doing so well that I'm sure she would be responsible enough to fill out the application and pay the fee to be my friend. But I can't do it while she's so attached to Pete.

The solution is clear. I must destroy Pete.


	17. Chapter 17

**Hey y'all! So I don't know if anyone is even following this story anymore X) But my sister and I have just been so busy, but we really wanted to keep going with this, so here we are!**

 **Thank you to Kayyla221, WeirdMal, thedauntlessamity, Ariadne Winters, MastaGamerita, CrazyFaerieSoul, and thisgirllovestoread677 for your kind words!**

 **We hope you guys like this chapter too! :D**

* * *

 **TRIS POV**

* * *

"Hear ye, hear ye!" I hear Pete yell, as I walk into the dorms.

When I walk in, I realize that like everyone is crowded around him. Which is super weird since I'm the one that went through the second stage of initiation like a champ, so they should be crowded around me, but I decide to let Pete have his moment because I'm such a good friend. As I walk up to the crowd, everybody looks at me. Some of them are looking at me sadly and some of them are snickering, so I decide to start laughing with them. I always love being part of a good joke.

"The recent transfers of Beatrice and Caleb Prior-"

"Hey, that's me!" I say happily.

"Call into question the soundness of Pitiful's values and teachings," Pete continues.

"Oh..."

"'Trix left the Pitiful faction to be with her Latin lover, Cuatro,' transfer initiate, Pete explains. 'She said she transferred to Barbaric because she was tired of practicing abstinence-"

"Wait, why are you talking about this Trix girl?" I ask angrily. "I thought this was gonna be about me!"

"Oh my god!" Pete yells, throwing the newspaper on the ground. "It is you, it's talking about you!"

"I don't get it," I shrug.

"I was talking about you, and how you abandoned your f**king faction!" Pete yells. He seems frustrated but I'm not sure why. "I gave them the wrong names on purpose so you would be-"

"Oh, Pete!" I say, chuckling. "That's so funny. What a fun joke. But who's Cuatro?"

I notice Tina face-palm beside me, but that doesn't answer my question.

"You know..." Will says, holding up fingers in my face. " _Cuatro?"_

"Back in Pitiful, we weren't allowed to count past three," I reminisce.

I look past Will, as Pete groans loudly and storms away. I shrug my shoulders. That was weird.

"So anyway," Alan says, as he wanders over to us. I forgot that he was even here because he was just standing there being all useless. "Why don't we go and get some tattoos so we can forget that Tris was just the victim of a hostile prank?"

I don't know what hostile means, but I'm guessing that it's similar to "friendly". So I nod my head at Alan.

"Very hostile, indeed," I agree.

Tina looks at me for a moment with narrowed eyes before she shrugs and rolls her eyes.

"Whatever, let's go," she says.

At some point, as we walk, Alan decides to give Tina a piggy back ride. I stand by my belief that he would be such a good little pet if he wasn't crying all the time.

"So what was your fear today, Tris?" Will asks out of nowhere.

"Well, I was in this field, and this freaking crow walks up to me and insults my outfit," I tell him. "Can you believe that? Little f**ker."

Look at me, cursing and everything. I am truly Barbaric now.

"Right..." Will says.

"Anyway," I continue. "What was your fear, Will?"

"MONSTERS!" he yells, waving his arms dramatically.

"Nice."

Luckily, we make it to the tattoo parlor pretty quickly, so I don't have to talk to Will anymore. Tina, Alan, and Will wander around, looking at the different designs and crap. But I decide to go straight to Tori, who doesn't seem to notice that I am here since her back is turned. So I decide to greet her like a true Barbaric.

"Yo, sup, Tori."

She turns around and rolls her eyes.

"What?" she groans.

"I have come for more skin art," I tell her.

"Fine, what do you want?"

"Well, actually..." I point at the three stick figures on my collarbone. "I'm still kinda upset about this one. You see, back in Pitiful, we weren't allowed to count past three. So I only got three stick figures for my mom, my dad, and my brosef. I really wanted to add one more for me, but I just... I don't know how many that would be in total-"

"For the love of god, if I put a separate stick figure on your shoulder, will you leave me alone?"

"That's perfect!" I clap my hands excitedly. "Thank you, Tori!"

"Whatever," she mutters. "Just sit down and shut up."

I laugh at this because I know that she is just joking around like all Barbarics do. She even glares at me, but I know it is just a sarcastic glare. She rolls her eyes, as I sit down on the chair and wait for her to start.

"So, do you like working here?" I ask her.

"I guess," she says, glancing at me. "Why?"

"I was thinking about working here, too, when initiation is-"

"It's terrible," she says quickly. "You would hate it."

"Oh. Thanks for the heads-up!" She says nothing to this, as she brings the needle to my shoulder and starts drawing the stick figure like a pro. "Hey, can I get some sweet flames, too? To show I'm Barbaric?"

"Sure," she mutters. "I'll make it so that your head is on fire. I mean... so that the stick figure's head is on fire."

"Cool, cool." I lean back in the chair and sigh. "So, listen, about that defective thing-"

" _Defective_ ," she says.

"I still don't hear a difference," I tell her. "So anyway, can you tell me more about that?"

"If I tell you, will you leave me alone?"

"'Kay," I say, knowing that she's just kidding.

Everyone is so silly here.

"Okay, so check it," she says, putting the needle down. "So my brother was Defective, just like you. Cool guy, way cooler than you. Anyway, do you wanna know what happens to Defective people like him?"

"What?" I ask anxiously.

"Well... He got randomly selected at the airport."

"No!" I yell. "Wait... what's an airport?"

"It's an awful place where you have to take off your shoes and stand in a metal cylinder. And a coffee costs ten dollars."

"That sounds like an absurd amount of money, I think!" She nods her head at me. "What happened to him when he got randomly selected?"

"Well, they found out that he was Defective..." she sighs. "So they shipped him off to the Bermuda Triangle."

"Oh no!" I yell even though I have no idea what she's talking about.

"It was terrible. I had to carry mine _and_ his carry-ons." She shudders. "So that is why you can't tell anyone that you're Defective."

"Because... I'll get randomly selected and shipped to the Bermuda Triangle?"

"Indubitably."

"But wait, what does it actually mean to be defective?"

"Defective!" she corrects me. "And it basically means that instead of getting an aptitude for one faction, you get a bunch. Basically it's because you're mediocre at all of those things but you're not actually good enough at one thing to qualify for a faction. And if you're not really good at anything, then you're good for nothing!"

"Wow."

"Well, at least that's what Jeanine Matthews says," Tori shrugs. "But yeah, that's all it means is that you're mediocre. And they don't like mediocre people, so they just ship them off to the Bermuda Triangle. Apparently, some of them have special powers, too, though."

"Powers!" I jump up off the chair. "Does that mean I can fly?"

"Oh, I get it!" I look over and see Tina, who I guess has been eavesdropping this whole time. "Is that why high surfaces always start rotating when Four stands on them?"

"Quite," Tori nods.

"How did you know about that?" I ask.

"I know everything."

"So then, that means..." I gasp loudly. "FOUR IS DEFECTIVE?"


	18. Chapter 18

**Hey y'all! I'm so glad you guys are still following this! Also, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to you all because we wrote this chapter completely unexpectedly, so consider it our gift to you haha! Thank you to Ariadne Winters, dauntless4664, CrazyFaerieSoul, and thisgirllovestoread677 for your comments!**

 **We hope you guys like this chapter! :D**

* * *

I can't believe it. Four is Defective just like me. I guess that's why we're love interests. Anyway, I keep thinking about it, as we walk through the Pitt to get back to the dorms.

"Hey, look," Will says, his arm flying in front of my face as he points at something.

I look where he is pointing and see a group of people standing near the Chasm. I notice right away that they are making quite a ruckus. Back in Pitiful, we weren't allowed to make ruckuses like this. I smile to myself, as I think about how totally Barbaric I am, what with my tattoos and whatnot. With that thought in mind, I turn to Alan who is staring at the crowd. I decide to punch him in the stomach because that's what Barbarics do, and he doubles over.

"Tris," Tina sighs, as she looks at Alan who is now crying on the floor. "Why?"

I shrug my shoulders at her. I am about to tell her that I punched Alan because I like him the least, but Will nudges me before I can say it, so I look at him.

"Check it out," he says. "It's Four."

"Where?" I ask, more interested now since this has to do with my love interest.

He points at the crowd again, and that is when I notice Four near the middle with a can in his hands. And that's when I notice that they all have cans and bottles in their hands. Oh no. They must be drinking the drugs!

"I know we're in Barbaric and all," I say, "but I can't believe that they're just drinking the drugs right out in the open!"

There is silence for a moment as Tina and Will simply look at me. I only say Tina and Will because Alan is still crying on the floor like a jerk.

"It's called alcohol, Tris," Tina says slowly.

"Very funny, Tina," I say with a chuckle.

"Yo, it's Tris!"

I look around and see Four stumbling over to me, the can still in his hands. I feel nervous because I have never been so close to somebody on the drugs before, but I still wave at him anyway.

"Soup, Four!"

Yes. Good Tris.

"Guess what we're doing?" Four says, his voice slurring.

"The drugs," I mumble.

"We're drinking by the Chasm!" he yells, pointing back at the group of people who haven't seemed to notice that Four isn't with them anymore. "Like party animals!"

"Wow, you guys sure are a crazy bunch."

Four starts dancing happily, as he takes a sip of the drugs from his can, so while he does that, I look at the group again. This time I notice that Eric is also in the group, and he is looking at us. I wave at him as well, and he rolls his eyes and looks away.

Suddenly, Four takes a step closer to me. But like, he's way too close. Especially to Pitiful standard, which are still ingrained in me. So I decide to punch him in the stomach, making the can fall out of his hands. But at least he isn't so close anymore.

"Tris, why?" he asks, as he clutches his stomach where I punched him. "I was just trying to tell you something!"

"Oh..." Well, now I feel silly. "In that case, come on back."

"I just wanted to tell you," he says in a strained voice as he moves closer to me again so that nobody else will hear him probably. "You're looking fly as shit, Tris."

I hear Will snicker next to me, and when I look at him I realize that he was also close enough to hear Four. I am about to punch him so that he won't tell anyone what Four said to me, but I guess he knew I was gonna do that because he runs away before I can.

When I look back at Four, he is already stumbling away. I watch him, as he stumbles over to the staircase near the Chasm.

"Four, no!" somebody yells.

But Four ignores them. He stumbles onto the staircase and runs to the top before anybody can stop him.

"Oh, no," I whisper.

Suddenly, the entire Pitt starts to rotate. Everybody falls over and cans of the drugs start flying everywhere until finally, Eric tackles Four and pulls him off the stairs.

"Wasn't that fun, Eric, my friend?" Four asks, as Eric drags him away from the stairs.

"Shut up, Four."

I get up since I fell over when the Pitt started rotating, and I look at Alan who is still on the ground and crying even more now.

"I think I broke my leg!" he cries out.

What a baby.

"Tris, why would you say that?" Tina says.

Oh, I guess I said that out loud by accident.

"Yes, you did." She rolls her eyes before looking down at Alan. "I think his leg is actually broken."

I just shrug my shoulders, as she starts dragging Alan to the infirmary. I look for Four again but it looks like he's gone now along with the rest of the group that was drinking the drugs. I look around and see that everyone else is still recuperating from when the Pitt was rotating. But since I'm totally fine, I just shrug again and decide to go back to the dorms.

* * *

The next day, I sit in the weird room on the roll-y chair while Four prepares my next simulation test thingy. He hasn't said anything to me since I came in. He didn't even wave back when I waved at him. But then suddenly, he looks at me and sighs.

"I'm sorry for what you saw last night," he says.

"Well, it's all good. But you should probably apologize to Alan since he broke his leg."

"Nah, I've never liked him. Anyway, ready for your simulation?"

"Hell yeah," I reply.

I'm a champ at these.

He nods and picks up the needle. He stares at my neck for a sixty seconds and sighs.

"I wish someone would have taught me how to do this," he mumbles just before he jabs me with the needle.

I close my eyes and fall asleep kinda for a second. But then, I wake up totally fine. This time, I am not in a field so I have to hope that I won't have to face insults from that ugly little crow again. When I look around, I realize that I am standing in a tall glass case. Outside the case, my friends are watching me. Tina, Will, and Pete are there. I wave to them and they start talking, but I can't hear what they're saying. Then, they start laughing. So of course, I start laughing with them.

My laughing is cut off, as I hear something really loud. I look down and realize that water is now gushing into the glass case that I'm in. Well, that's totally weird. But I'm not worried. Four is watching this simulation, and I know he totally wouldn't hurt me. He's probably just trying to scare me as a Barbaric prank. I laugh even harder at the thought and point up at the ceiling where I assume Four is watching from.

"Very funny, Four!" I yell.

I keep laughing, as the water rises. Eventually, it is at my neck. It feels like an awesome personal swimming pool so I start trying to swim around, but it doesn't really work since there's not enough room. If Four was going to pull such a long prank, I wish he would have at least given me more swimming room. I'll make sure to tell him that.

Eventually, the water passes my neck and fills the glass case completely so I have to hold my breath. But then, suddenly I can't hold my breath anymore. And I realize... Maybe this isn't a prank!

Just as I realize this, everything starts going black. Then, I wake up again, but this time I am back in the simulation room with Four again. I sit up and look at him.

"That was a really terrible prank, Four," I tell him.

"It wasn't a prank," he says slowly. "It was your test... Tris, why would I prank you?"v

"Because we're buddies."

"When it got to the point that you couldn't breathe, why didn't you try to do something?"

"I thought you were gonna do something."

"Tris, that's not good."

"We all make mistakes." I shrug. "You went upstairs last night."

"Tris, stop saying that," he says. "I don't want everyone to find out!"

Suddenly, an idea comes into my mind. I stand up and put my hands on my hips.

"Okay, Four. I won't say anything about it." I point at him, my finger an inch away from his noise. "If..."

"If what?" he asks.

"If you give me an application so I can be your friend!"

He looks at me for a moment and sighs before pushing my finger away from his face.

"Okay," he says. "I will. But it's totally not because I like you or anything. It's just because I don't want people to find out."

I nod at him, as he pulls a folded up piece of paper out of his pocket. He unfolds it and hands it to me.

"The application fee is in there, too," he explains. "I also need three references, and you need to have at least three years of experience."

"Experience in what?"

"I don't know. Friendship, I guess."

"Cool, bro." I nod, as I look over the application before looking at him again. "'Kay, well I'm gonna go now."

He nods at me, as I walk past him and start on my way to the dorms so that I can fill out the application. Before I leave, I turn around and look at him again.

"Bee tee dubs, Four." He turns to look at me, and I grin at him. "Everybody already knows about last night, I just used it so I could get an application from you! I totally got you!"

He stares at me for a moment, his mouth open in shock before suddenly he gasps, and then he starts laughing. So of course, I laugh along.

"You totally got me!" He finger-guns at me, so I do it back, and we both laugh together. "Get out of here, you little rascal!"

So, I do. I do leave, like the little rascal I am.


	19. Chapter 19

**Hey! What's soup guys, gals, and anything in between! So if anyone is still interested in this story at all, the writers (my sister and me) are here to give you an update.**

 **As you probably figured, life has been crazy for both of us, and we have not been able to update this story because of that.**

 **Buuut because we love all you crazies, we came back to tell you this:**

 **We have decided to have a contest!**

 **Since we don't have the time to sit down together and finish this story, we want to see how YOU want the story to end!**

 **Write up how you think this story should end and send it to us by Valentine's Day (Four's favorite holiday). We will pick the best ending and post it here, giving you credit, and we will also favorite the winner!**

 **Shoot me a message if you'd like to be considered! We look forward to hearing from you guys!**


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